TRADERS and civic leaders in Devizes are working together in a bid to get financial information from Wiltshire Council on car parking income so they can judge how this will affect parking in the Market Place.

A working group of town councillors and business people has met and Iain Wallis from the Federation of Small Businesses has sent a Freedom Of Information request asking for figures to be released.

Mr Wallis said: "Parking is a matter of vital importance to both traders and users of the car parks. To give you an idea of how important an issue this is; I attended the press conference at the Salisbury area board which was to give an update on the chemical weapons attack there and the first three questions from the public were not about what danger they may be in but instead whether they could have free parking in the city centre car parks."

He said traders in Devizes were encouraged that the town council was talking to business owners and valuing their opinion but he keen for the working party to not just concentrate on the Market Place, where Wiltshire Council wants to introduce pay and display machines, but to look at the winder issue of parking charges. He said: "There is a danger that the focus on parking will be swallowed up entirely by the Market Place when it should be on parking in the town, and indeed the county, as a whole.

"Wiltshire Councils approach to parking will have a detrimental effect on independent businesses, particularly at a time when the economy is fragile to say the least. Businesses very much view the increase in charges as a stealth tax on drivers."

Wiltshire cabinet member for finance Philip Whitehead told a meeting of the town council last month that an alternative to bringing in pay and display charges to the Market Place could be to make the area car free.

But this angered some traders who feared it would affect trade and people who worried it would push more parking onto residential roads.

Devizes Mayor Nigel Carter said the town council also wanted more answers from Wiltshire Council. He said: "We are trying to establish just what revenue expectations are, how parking will be modelled to demonstrate revenue advantage if the Market Place is closed and issues around the other exercises in progress to restrict parking in the town."