A decision to increase parking charges across Merton may not be final just yet.

Last week the council approved a controversial new system that would see on-street parking in Wimbledon town centre rise to £4.50 an hour from £1.20-2.40, while areas such as Raynes Park and Colliers Wood would go up to £3.

This was met with outrage from both Lib Dem and Conservative parties who have now both successfully applied to 'call in' the decision.

But what does that mean exactly? Well a description posted on the council's website read: "From time to time, the Cabinet may make a decision that causes concern to some councillors to such an extent that they believe the decision should be changed.

"Call-in is intended to be used in exceptional circumstances for decisions believed to be contrary to the authority's decision making principles. By its nature it acts as a delaying mechanism.

"If the monitoring officer judges the call-in to be valid it is then referred to the relevant scrutiny panel or, if the panel has previously scrutinised the issue, to the Commission."

In this case, the decision will go to the Overview and Scrutiny Commission committee, although a date for the meeting has not yet been set.

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This came as great news to the Conservative's deputy leader Daniel Holden.

"We have consistently opposed this unfair, discriminatory tax which will cost Wimbledon residents an extra £1.6 million every year," Cllr Holden said.

"We have attempted to scrap the decision four times by challenging it twice in committee, and twice in council.

"Every time Labour ignored the opinion of over 3,000 local residents who responded to the consultation, and voted for their tax grab from Wimbledon."

These sentiments were echoed by Lib Dem leader Anthony Fairclough said:

“The Labour administration says these new charges will reduce traffic and encourage people to give up their cars, but they’ve repeatedly failed to provide any evidence that suggests this is likely to happen," he added.

“The scheme looks like it’s purely to raise revenue, mainly targeted at people who live in areas that don’t elect Labour councillors – Wimbledon and Raynes Park – where the new charges will be highest. We hope that the ‘call-in’ will force them to look at their plans again.

"Instead we want them to look seriously at schemes where the worst polluting vehicles pay more, where support is given to help people change to greener vehicles, and where other positive action is also taken to improve air quality."

The council has previously said that the reason it is implementing the changes is to drive down car use and encourage more people to journey by foot or bike.