ANOTHER plea has been made for the extension of consultation into the introduction of on-street parking charges in North Yorkshire’s county town.

Northallerton Town Council has already asked the county council to put back the deadline from January 3 to the end of February.

And they have now been given the whole-hearted backing of the Dales branch of the Federation of Small Businesses.

Chairman Keith Jackson said: “ We believe any consultation over the festive period would be ineffective and unrepresentative.

“Thus we would question the veracity of any findings or conclusions that are drawn from such a consultation.”

The branch made its plea in its own response to the consultation, in which it claimed there had been a lack of information, evidence or reasoning for the proposed changes.