Free on-street parking will soon be a thing of the past in Winchester.

City Council bosses are now on course to bring in a 30p charge for every half-hour spent at any of the spaces later this summer.

But traders say new charges to be levied on 130 spaces will slam the brakes on motorists popping in for quick-stop shopping trips.

The charging scheme was given the go-ahead on Tuesday by Hampshire's environment boss, Councillor Keith Estlin, who hopes other council's will soon follow suit.

But Winchester chamber of commerce member Paul Morgan, of Warren and Sons stationers', said traders still fear that the charges will drive motorists away from city centre businesses.

Mr Morgan added: "There are countless examples of people who would like to be able to park centrally for a short period of time.

"I have said this before and I will say it again, many of these initiatives we see being brought into effect in Winchester are punitive measures to the motorist. They are not initiatives designed to financially incentivise them to park elsewhere."

But Cllr Estlin hopes that by backing Winchester City Council's scheme he can change people's driving habits and tackle spiralling traffic congestion.

He said: "Winchester is now the first area that has applied for on-street parking charges and I think there is a tremendous benefit to them.

"It's all part and parcel of restricting private cars and hopefully to drive people to use other forms of transport.

"Overall the public are going to benefit but we will just have to wait to see how it works."

A spokesman for the city council said the new charges would be brought in by August or September at the latest.