Birmingham City Council leaders are considering making the controversial A34 Stratford Road red route permanent and rolling out similarly tough no parking restrictions across the city's other main commuter routes.

Despite a public outcry in Sparkbrook and Springfield, where Asian traders say the zero tolerance approach to on-street parking is in danger of forcing scores of small shops and Balti restaurants to close, a senior transportation official wants the experiment to be made permanent.

Almost 7,000 parking tickets have been issued along the route by wardens since April last year, leaving traders claiming that customers are scared to shop in the area now.

David Bull, assistant director of development strategy at the council, told a scrutiny inquiry yesterday there was no evidence to support claims by the Stratford Road Business Association that takings were down by up to 50 per cent since the red route regulations came into force a year ago.

Mr Bull said the pilot was a success, with traffic moving more quickly along the four-mile stretch of the A34, and it would be his strong recommendation to transportation cabinet member Coun Len Gregory that the parking restrictions be made permanent.

He said the council had provided an additional 202 parking spaces, mainly off-street, and 40 loading spaces along the Stratford Road and carried out 85 design changes to the red route at the request of traders.

There were now more legal parking spaces in the area, although he accepted that thousands of "illegal" parking spots on the side of the road next to traders’ premises were no longer available to customers.

Any fall off in trade was more likely to be connected to high interest rates and poor economic conditions than the impact of the red route, he argued.

Mr Bull added: "If it is perceived that it is harder to park then that’s because of a communication problem. Perception and reality are not the same thing, I know we have over 200 extra parking spaces.

"I have no evidence to say that the red route has caused an impact on the income of the traders. It could be that there are other reasons, and I believe that to be the case."

He wants the Stratford Road red route, which cost #6.5 million to implement, to be replicated across the city’s other main radial roads.

The suggestion poses a major political headache for Coun Gregory (Con Billesley) and the council’s ruling Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition. Several Liberal Democrat-held seats in Sparkbrook and Hall Green are thought to be at risk to Labour and the Respect party, which is campaigning heavily against the red route.

Traders want an independent study into the impact of the Stratford Road red route after it emerged the council failed to carry out either an economic impact assessment or an equalities impact assessment in an area which is marked by high unemployment and social deprivation.

Two studies, one by academics from Aston and Birmingham city universities and one from transportation experts Amey, surveyed more than 100 traders who reported a sharp fall in turnover.

Coun Gregory, who must make a decision by the middle of May, is also under pressure from other West Midlands councils who are bidding for millions of pounds of Government funding to set up region-wide red routes.

Simon Rowberry, from CEPOG, the Chief Engineers and Planning Officers Group of the seven West Midlands councils, said it would be very difficult to convince the Department for Transport to pay for the routes if Birmingham abandoned the Stratford Road scheme.

Representatives from the Stratford Road Business Association told yesterday’s scrutiny inquiry that more than 3,000 residents had signed a petition calling for the red route to be abolished. Off-street parking spaces provided by the council were in inconvenient locations and too far away from shops for customers to walk, they claimed.

Sparkbrook city councillor Salma Yaqoob said local people felt marginalised and unable to make their concerns heard at the council.

Coun Yaqoob (Resp Sparkbrook) added: "This is very serious. Yes, we need increased journey times and less pollution but at the same time we need some joined up thinking in terms of how we deal with deprived communities."