RESIDENTS staged a peaceful protest yesterday as part of campaign to prevent council workers installing parking meters.

People who live in Durham's affluent Western Hill carried placards and played Bob Dylan's Blowin' in the Wind as they arrived to mark the road with car parking spaces.

Workers from Durham County Council were unable to finish their work because there were too many cars parked in the area.

People came from their houses, many of which have anti-parking meter posters up, to demonstrate their opposition at about 2pm.

Seong-Joon Lee, of Albert Street Residents' Committee said: "We drew attention to the difficult issue we are fighting for.

"The feeling of a lot of people in the street is that we do not want parking meters.

"We have lost some ground because the council have started work marking the road out, but they have not got the parking meters in yet, so our campaign is not over."

The protest is supported by Durham City Councillor Grenville Holland.

He said: "Parking meters are ugly and intrusive and this is a Victorian terrace street that is unspoilt. It is about aesthetics and they would be out of character with the area.

"People around here are angry at the plan, but they are peaceful and not breaking the law."

Police attended the protest, but there were no arrests.

Durham City MP Roberta Blackman-Woods has asked Durham County Council to postpone the plan "until the major resolved issues have been addressed".

A council spokesman said: "If we do not extend the parking controls to Western Hill, it would be the only street left in the city centre with free parking, which, after the introduction of park and ride and the changes to on-street parking charges, would create significant problems for residents, and others, through the volume of traffic it would be likely to attract.

"The proposed parking ticket machines are no different to those already introduced and in operation in equally historic and sensitive streets in the city centre, such as South Street, overlooking the cathedral, and Hallgarth Street and Old Elvet, where they have proved quite acceptable to residents," the spokesman added.