SHOPKEEPERS are to start a petition against Wirral Council charging them to put up A boards and signs in the street.

The new conditions and charges apply to all businesses who use A boards, signs or external shop displays to advertise their businesses.

From now on, shop and business owners wanting to display their boards must pay £50 for the first year, and then £40 for every subsequent year.

For those wanting a shop display licence, which allows displays to take up a maximum of five square metres outside their business, shopkeepers must pay £75 for the first year and £60 for every subsequent year.

The charges have angered business owners in Banks Road, West Kirby, who say they have advertised their businesses for years without having to pay a charge.

A group of business owners in the area now say they will be forming a petition against the council.

Tony Dangerfield, owner of Waverly newsagents, hwho as had to apply for a shop display licence, said: “I don’t look at this as a licence fee, but as another form of tax on small businesses.

“We work to a budget, so every additional cost thrown on us in these times has to be recovered from somewhere else and labour is our only flexible cost.”