A prominent businessman has resigned his position on Hadleigh's Invest board set up by Babergh District Council.

Ian Grutchfield, venue director at Hadleigh Old School, is furious at Babergh's plans to make changes to its current car parking charging strategy, which could lead to a reduction of some free parking in the town.

These options will be discussed at a Babergh cabinet meeting on January 7, and including changes in Haleigh, Sudbury, Pin Mill and Lavenham.

Mr Grutchfield said in his letter: "I was led to believe that BDC wanted to support Hadleigh. It was noted that free car parking is one of the economic advantages that businesses in our town - and Sudbury, Lavenham, East Bergholt, etc have.

"Since then parking has been removed on Market Hill in Sudbury and the Babergh Cabinet now plan to end free parking in Hadleigh. This goes against a great many of the personal manifestos of our councillors.

"By leaving this group I want the freedom to vociferously oppose the removal of one of our few competitive advantages.

"At a time of recession the policy will be destructive and cause harm to lots of my friends in the town, and to sneak the proposal through at Christmas is underhand."

Frank Minns, mayor of Hadleigh, said he only found out about the car parking proposals when he read the Hadleigh Nub News article yesterday. (Full story here...)

He said: "I have learned - not from Babergh District Council as would have been polite - but from the online news site Nub News - that BDC are considering introducing short term parking charges in Hadleigh. They will decide at their cabinet meeting on 7 January.

"It must be assumed that they have told the town council nothing about this because they do not want to hear any opinion opposed to the idea, and because they plan to vote it through. The sheer high-handedness of this is astonishing - to even consider such a possibility with no consultation whatsoever, when we who live here are the people with the businesses that will be so badly affected.

"All this is being done at a time when our High Street is going through a really tough patch, and this is the last thing we need."

Cllr Minns also questioned the timing and added: "People here are very worried about this. The high street is going through a tough time at the moment and this will deter people to do shopping here.

"Why if this was a bad idea in the past is it suddenly a good idea now?"

Proposals due to go to Babergh District Council's cabinet on January 7 and are set to be published next week indicate the council is looking to introduce some form of charge for the first three hours of parking, which are currently free.

But Hadleigh firms say high streets in the district's market towns need all the help they can get when Covid-19 has already disrupted business so much.

Tony Addison, one of the directors of Hadleigh Chamber of Commerce, said: "It's despicable. If we had real figures about what they argue is the reason for doing it I think we would find they don't have a justification for it, and then add to that the damage it would do to the high street."

Mr Addison said many independent stores in Hadleigh benefitted from people coming to the town for appointments such as opticians or doctors and then shopping afterwards, and charging for those shorter stays would mean people will not stay to shop.

He added that the free parking had been a draw for new independents joining the town.

Matthew Pescott Frost, from Matthew Douglas Independent Financial Advice in Hadleigh town centre, said: "If the council is serious in their ambition to 'Invest in Hadleigh' then creating yet another barrier to entry for passing trade is clearly not a good place to start. It is incumbent upon all of us who live in this town and wish to promote our high street to make this a desirable shopping experience and a place that is a pleasure to spend time in.

"I implore the council to rethink this destructive decision."

The council's cabinet is due to consider the matter as part of its budget proposals on January 7. Council leader John Ward said it was a matter of course to revisit parking charges every year as part of the budget-setting process.

"There will be a full explanation as to what we are doing and why we are doing it, and there are a number of reasons," he said.

"Last year collectively the car parks in Babergh made a loss £320,000 – we cannot sustain that anymore with the government reducing support and limits on council tax increases. It is long overdue and it is very unfortunate that it coincides with Covid."

Mr Ward urged caution on some of the speculation around the proposals which have not yet been published, and said there "won't be a complete elimination of free parking," adding that a timeline for any changes would be clearly mapped out as "nothing is going to be immediate".