David Cameron has urged councils to stop ‘picking on the poor motorist’ and introduce free parking in town centres.

Speaking near Birmingham, the Conservative prime minister said it was ‘not surprising’ that charging shoppers to park in high streets would see them ‘go elsewhere’.

Cameron said: ‘I love our high streets, they are part of what makes us proud to be British. We want town centres to be vibrant, exciting places to go and shop and meet. That is what it used to be.’

He championed the Oxfordshire town of Witney in his constituency, where free parking meant ‘you can always come and shop’.

Cameron described the region as ‘a great place to come’, before issuing a warning to town halls across the country.

‘We also have got to help our local councils to invest in them,’ he said. ‘One tip I have for a lot of local councils, including in my own area, is don’t keep picking on the poor motorists.’

‘People like to drive into a market town and park. So if you keep charging them it is not surprising that they will go elsewhere.’

Research from the RAC Foundation suggested English councils made a £667m ‘profit’ on parking last year, a 12% rise on the previous 12 months. However council leaders quickly damned the findings as ‘misleading’ and said funds raised were allocated to services.

Communities secretary Eric Pickles has pledged to end the ‘war on drivers’ by introducing sweeping changes to parking enforcement including 10-minute grace periods for drivers who overstay their tickets and a ban on CCTV to issue automated fines in certain locations.

Pickles has said: ‘For too long parking rules have made law-abiding motorists feel like criminals, and caused enormous damage to shops and businesses.

‘Our measures not only bring big benefits for high streets, motorists and local authorities - they put common sense back into parking.’