TRADERS in the city centre say they would back any move to relax the city's tough parking laws.
Local Government Secretary Eric Pickles recently slammed high parking charges in many city centres, which he claims are putting people off shopping.
He also called for councils to be more relaxed in their approach, and stop unsing motorists as "cash cows".
He said: "We are currently looking at more ways to curb ridiculously high parking charges and traffic wardens who pounce on those simply popping into their local shop for a pint of milk."
People who park and work in Derby Road in the city centre are particularly fed up of high parking prices and what they say are over-zealous traffic wardens. Delia Shaw, a shop worker in Derby Road, said: "People are in and out of here really quickly. It would be fairer to people who are only going to be five minutes.
"They shouldn't have to pay large amounts to park to just buy a pint of milk."
Currently anyone wanting to park on Derby Road must pay £1 for an hour, and 50p per additional 30 minutes on Mondays to Saturdays between 8am and 6pm.
Roger Rinon, who parks to pick his children up from St Joseph's School pays £1 a day even though he is only there five minutes at a time.
He said: "Traffic wardens should give us more time."
Stuart Isbister, manager of The Worm That Turned shop, said: "It is much better than it used to be but there could be more flexibility and there could be more free zones."
His wife and co-owner, Heather, added that she can see how to some people just popping in for a £1.99 pack of seeds can find it a hassle to fork out a £1 to park on the road – although the couple are willing to help with the charges.
But Nottingham City Councillor transport spokeswoman Jane Urquhart hit back at Mr Pickles' comments.
The city's portfolio holder for planning and transport said: "His comments don't reflect the situation in Nottingham. We have introduced simple, cheap on-street parking arrangements in the city centre which allow the sort of short-term parking arrangements he appears to be referring to."
"In Nottingham, Mr Pickle's stereotypical traffic warden waiting to pounce doesn't exist – we've recently brought the service back in-house and there is a grace period before tickets are issued and there are no bonuses for issuing high numbers of fines."
