TORIES have pledged to scrap a hated council policy to charge Southampton residents to park outside their homes.

The announcement came after the Daily Echo presented them with a 600- name petition from angry readers demanding the right to park for free.

Conservatives promised that residents with free parking permits will not have to pay for them as previously proposed under a controversial Labour and Lib Dem policy.

Residents will also be given a chance to veto any new parking scheme that could attract a fee for permits.

Councillor Gavin Dick, Cabinet member for transport, said: "I will bring forward a paper which will not allow the council to charge existing permit holders a fee for those permits.

"They did not attract a fee when they were introduced.

I don't think bringing it in retrospectively is a fair or equitable way to run a council."

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He added that proposals for new residents' parking zones - which could attract a fee - would be "judged on their own merits".

He said: "If the overwhelming majority don't want charges there would not be a scheme put in."

A joint Labour and Lib Dem administration approved the policy to bring in charges for first residents' permits in March during a twomonth spell in power.

They wanted to make the residents' parking schemes "self-funding".

It provoked outrage from residents and led to the Daily Echo launching a Parking Mad campaign for a U-turn.

Labour and Lib Dem council leaders later claimed they had no plans to implement the policy but refused to bin it.

The parking policy became a hot campaign issue during the local elections which saw Conservatives sweep to majority control of the city council for the first time in 24 years.

But former Lib Dem leader Jill Baston accused the Tories of "total hypocrisy" for doing the groundwork on the policy while they were last in office. It was based on recommendation from transport consultants Halcrow.