The owners of a cafe are appealing against a council decision to limit the time their customers are allowed to park outside.

Drivers parking in Walderslade Village are currently allowed to leave their vehicles for 60 minutes instead of the previous two hours outside Bliss Tea Rooms and neighbouring shops.

Staff believe it is impacting on business as people are feeling pressurised to finish their food and drink and and not enjoying their stay.

Shirley Bliss, who runs the tearoom with daughters Cindie Shirley and Melanie Lake, organised a petition with more than 1,000 signatures.

But the council's parking department said a survey had been carried out which revealed that hour was long enough to carry out chores and have something to eat and drink.

Ruth Dulieu, assistant director of frontline services, said a longer period could have an adverse effect by attracting non-shoppers.

Cindie said: "I would like to see evidence of this.Who can go to the shops. have their nails done and have a coffee in an hour?

"I thought the council was supposed to be encouraging small businesses , but this is going to put people off coming to our little shopping centre."

Mum Mrs Shirley,34, added that many of their customers were elderly and would not walk to the village.

Mrs Bliss,62,who has run the business for three years, said: "The traffic warden has been down recently and someone posted on Facebook saying ‘don’t park there, the traffic warden is there’ and that’s a problem for us. “We can’t have people telling others not to come down, it’s bad for business.

“We don’t want to get to a point where we say to customers ‘you’ve been here for 50 minutes, you’ve got to go’.”

"The customers have been absolutely fantastic and don’t think it’s too much to ask.

“I’m worried the next step will be to put meters in. I’d consider giving my customers the money to cover it.

“It’s a lovely, friendly chatty place for people to come and catch up over a coffee. I don’t want it to lose that."