DETERMINED traders have vowed to fight the council all the way as plans to install CCTV to catch out drivers are given the go-ahead.

Shopkeepers from George Lane, South Woodford, will start a petition this week in a desperate last-ditch attempt to stop Redbridge Council using nine new cameras to squeeze money out of shoppers flouting parking laws.

Businesses joined in a show of solidarity this morning, as the plans were last night rubber-stamped at a meeting of area two councillors.

Marilyn Achilleos, of the Helen Rollason cancer charity shop on George Lane, said: “A lot of our customers park outside the shop to drop off donations which we really need and which go towards a very good cause.

“A lot of our customers are also elderly so can't carry things and we get a lot of heavy goods that we have to move from place to place.

“If we stop getting donations and my husband can't park the van up to load and unload our business is going to seriously suffer.

“We're going to get a petition going, 100 per cent.

“I'll walk up and down the street with it as many times as I need to – no problem at all.”

Robert Federico of the Little Woodford Café said they would have something up and running by the end of the week.

He said: “We need as many people to sign it as possible which we know they will because everyone's against it.

“It's going to kill local business and people are going to be scared to come here.

“There's already three traffic wardens patrolling here so why do they need them?”

Marcus Williams of Southern Court Securities ltd said: “I think it's a terrible and disgusting idea.

“It won't affect us as badly as some other people but our guys come in to collect their wages three times a week and it's going to be a nightmare if they keep getting ticketed.

“There's never enough parking spaces along this road but they do that deliberately to catch us out.

“It's just a money making scam and when you stand up for what's right you don't give up.”

The CCTV are planned as part of a £1.7million regeneration project that will also see improved paving and better signage.

Petitions for shoppers to sign are expected to be displayed in shops by the end of this week.

A spkeswoman for the Council said: "We are are at a loss as to why people are protesting against something that will ultimately make the streets of South Woodford safer, capture those perpetrators of crime and help bring them to justice.

"The cameras are there first and foremost for the safety of local residents.

"But our message is simple if you don't park contrary to the regulations you will not be caught on camera and penalised.

"This is for residents' own safety. How this will put off local residents and shoppers from coming to South Woodford we don't know."