A protest has been held at a popular park over a council's plans to introduce parking charges.

People gathered in Dunorlan Park, Tunbridge Wells, to dispute a motion to scrap free parking this morning.

Nasir Jamil, a former Conservative councillor, organised and led the demonstration.

He said: "Despite cold weather and Saturday when everyone was busy, we had a good response from the public and our protest was successful.

"The chairman of The Friends of Dunorlan Park, Mr Peter Russell, was also present at our protest and fully supported us.

"We have handed over lots of leaflets to the park users and almost everyone supported us."

Mr Jamil, who says the plans amount to "taxing for relaxing", added: "We will see if the council listens to the public's concern and online survey, and refrain from introducing parking charges.

"However if they do not listen we will organise another protest in the new year.

"Everyone is determined to keep fighting for our parks."

The park currently costs Tunbridge Wells Borough Council £182,000 to maintain each year.

It says the parking charges "could help mitigate this expenditure and provide some additional income to support our services".

The council has now begun a consultation on the future of Dunorlan, including its two car parks in Pembury Road and Hall's Hole Road.

'If they do not listen we will organise another protest in the new year...'

A public survey is available online for residents to share their opinions, which will help inform the council to decide early next year on whether or not to introduce the change.

The consultation closes on Sunday, December 18 and is available to view here.

Dunorlan has a variety of amenities, including fishing, boat hire, pond dipping, a play area and a cafe.

The park is also is home to the town's Parkrun – a community group which uses the area to run a route of 5k every Saturday morning.

In a statement the organisers said: "We would encourage those in our parkrunning community who have views on the matter to fill in the TWBC’s online survey.

"Participation in parkrun is free, and will always remain so.

"Of course this does not always mean there is free car parking at venues which are kind enough to host a parkrun – and anyone who has visited other parkruns will know that practice as regards car park charges can vary widely.

"As a local event within the wider parkrun movement RTW parkrun will not take a collective/organisational view on whether parking charges should be introduced."

They added that if the council does introduce charges, that they should consider a fee waiver or concessions for those who are designated volunteers at the event.

Also if the council could avoid having a charging "trigger point" that kicks in during the session, as they say people taking part will be at the park for around an hour.

Cabinet member for finance, Cllr Chris Hall (Lib dem), said: "The Borough Partnership is committed to stabilising the council’s finances.

"Currently the council spends more than it receives in revenue so we need to look at new ways of meeting costs including maintaining our beautiful parks.

"I would encourage everyone to submit their views via the council’s survey.

"If car parking charges are introduced at Dunorlan we need your views on how to make it fair and workable for residents."