Residents and business owners will have the chance to quiz Cornwall Council staff on controversial plans which would effectively eliminate free on-street parking around Falmouth and Penryn town centres next week.

The council is currently consulting on its plans to introduce pay and display parking on Bar Road, Berkeley Vale, Grove Place, High Street, Killigrew Street, Kimberley Park Road, New Street, Pendennis Head, Queen Mary Road and Swanpool Road in Falmouth and on Broad Street, Lower Market Street and Commercial Road in Penryn.

While people are being encouraged to go online at cornwall.gov.uk/parkingreview to have their say on the proposals, the council is also staging an exhibition at Falmouth's council chamber on the first floor of the Municipal Buildings on The Moor, between 11am and 8pm next Thursday, November 24.

Cornwall Council is also planning to introduce residents' parking zones in areas of the two towns. Residents living in those streets have been sent a letter alerting them to the schemes and asking for their views. It has also written to residents in neighbouring streets, who might also be impacted if a scheme is introduced nearby when cars are displaced, asking them how they feel too.

Defending the plans, Bert Biscoe, the council's cabinet member for transport, who does not drive, said: “Residents and businesses have told us about their parking problems – the detailed schemes being proposed show how we’ve listened both to their underlying concerns and stress. Our aim is to meet everybody’s needs in a more effective and efficient way and we now want to hear what people think.”