RESTAURANTS and cafes along Shepherd's Bush Road fear planned weekend parking charges will be the death knell for businesses in the area.

Visitors currently only have to use pay and display parking between 9am and 6pm Monday to Friday, but a new consultation is seeking views on whether this should be extended to include the weekend.

Traders fear that if the new 9am to 8pm charges are implemented, people will stop coming.

Cafe Rouge supervisor Nenni Nassim said trading conditions are already tough enough without adding further restrictions on customers.

He said: "If they introduce parking restrictions people aren't going to come. If they charge people on Saturday and Sunday, it will kill us all along here.

"It's not fair, it's not busy at the weekend, they don't need to do this.

"We used to have so many more people working on Saturdays and Sundays and now we don't, because it's so much quieter. People should be able to park in side streets for free - it's ridiculous.

"One woman got fined £80 the other day for being one minute late on her ticket - I guarantee you she won't come back again because of that."

Kate Szlovak, manager of delicatessen and cafe Brook's Counter and Table, shared Mr Nassim's view.

She said: "I'm not happy about this at all. It's already difficult parking round here, this is going to make it worse. For them to charge at weekends, just doesn't make any sense. It will damage all businesses in the area."

Shepherd's Bush Road is in controlled parking zone B, which covers Brook Green up to Shepherd's Bush Common.

The consultation, which ends on Monday (20), was triggered after residents approached the council about extending the parking hours to combat Westfield-related parking stress.

Deputy council leader Nick Botterill said: "We welcome all suggestions and hope all residents and business owners will make their views known via the consultation.

"We are consulting on whether or not residents and businesses want us to make any changes to the current controlled parking zone regulations.

"We will not make any recommendations for changes which are not supported by a broad consensus majority of people.

"No decisions will ever be made until the results of the consultation are in."