AN IMPASSIONED plea has been made to stave off parking charges in a busy York city centre street.

Micklegate postmaster Paul Abbott said the street would slowly die if pay-and-display plans were approved.

He collected a 1,500-signature petition against the plans, and this was handed to last night's full City of York Council meeting by ward councillor Dave Evans.

Mr Abbott said before the meeting: "People who come into my post office are not going to want to pay £1.40 to collect their pensions.

"There should be a plan to regenerate Micklegate, not kill it off. Sub-postmasters are struggling anyway because of the changes to the way benefits are collected. This would be another nail in the coffin."

Coun Evans said Micklegate was home to a number of individual, one-off businesses that had to work hard to keep going. "That is one of York's attractions, that it is not full of identikit stores. These charges would affect livelihoods."

Council transport boss Ann Reid said a decision on the traffic regulation orders needed to impose the charges would be made at the March 2 executive meeting.

All objections to the proposals would be considered then, Coun Reid said.

Updated: 10:43 Wednesday, February 25, 2004