Free parking after 3pm has been controversially scrapped in Trafford's town centres for Christmas and New Year.
The Labour-led move - designed to reduce pollution and save the council up to £75,000 - has been branded the "nightmare before Christmas" for local businesses.
Conservative councillors, who have a launched a petition against the initiative, fear it will drive shoppers away.
Councillor Daniel Chalkin said: "Shoppers will likely drive further to the Trafford Centre rather than visiting our high streets, which will have a more detrimental impact on the environment.
“It’s quite unbelievable that Labour is making our town and district centres less appealing for local residents and visitors in a year when many high street businesses are still trying to recover from the effects of the pandemic.
“This devastating blow for our local retailers comes on top of Labour’s plans to again hike up parking charges in our town centres in 2022."
Conservative members have called for the council to make use of its savings pot to keep the scheme alive and reverse its ‘scrooge-like’ decision.
Implementing the free parking scheme costs the council between £50k and £75k each year in lost income, which Labour members said the council ‘simply cannot afford’.
But Coun Chalkin added: “If Labour can’t find £75k out of a council revenue budget in 2021 of £179m, while sitting on useable reserves of £165m at April 2021, then there must be a problem with managing the finances.”
However Coun Dan Jerome, leader of Trafford’s Green Party group, has backed free parking being scrapped to try to encourage more shoppers to use public transport.
He said: “In the aftermath of COP26, it is hard to see how the council could have justified subsidising parking and encouraging town-centre congestion and pollution.
“We have to remember that there is no such thing as free parking.
"This was costing the cash-strapped council £50-75k per year. We all pay for this through our council tax, including the 31% of people in Greater Manchester who don’t have access to a car.
"The evidence clearly shows that this sort of scheme doesn’t help our local businesses. It simply increases the demand for parking and the number of cars on our already congested roads."
Coun Jerome said residents in Altrincham town centre are being plagued by pollution, fuelled by the free parking scheme for December and early January since 2017.
He added: “The council also needs to give shoppers more options.
"They need to make walking, cycling and public transport more accessible.”
But Coun James Wright, Labour executive member for housing and regeneration at Trafford council, said the decision will help "address climate change".
He added: : The council remains committed to supporting and enhancing our town centres with significant public and private sector funding planned for each of them over the coming years.
"This will support businesses and improve the shopping and visiting experience for residents.”
