ANGRY town centre shop workers gathered outside the borough council headquarters on Monday lunchtime to demonstrate against the introduction of car parking charges.

More than a dozen women claiming the move would mean a drop in their wages spent half an hour holding up placards bearing the slogan: 'How much does it cost to ruin the Port?'

Brenda French, who organised the protest along with colleague Anne Reynolds, says it now costs 80p a day for part-time workers to park and £1.30p if they work more than six hours.

Ms French said: 'It's an absolute disgrace. We are paying the council to set up and staff the scheme and already on the first day there were no fewer than four wardens operating in the car park behind Asda. It means we are losing part of our pay and we simply can't afford it.'

Anne Reynolds said: 'It's just going to kill Ellesmere Port. The council jumped the gun and printed on the tickets that refunds can be obtained from participating stores. But it appears no shops have agreed to this yet and there's been havoc in a number of shops with lots of customers complaining.

'To add insult to injury the warning signs the council put up on the meters before today's launch were insulting and threatening.'