A BID to curb the amount of advertising space payday lenders are able to have in public spaces is going before full council tomorrow.

The motion is being brought by the Labour group’s leader Jim Grant, who would also like to see the council inserting a target in its Corporate Strategy to promote the use of credit unions as a better alternative.

The motion also condemns practices used by payday lenders, such as the high interest rates that they charge.

This motion follows the recent debate among national politicians and payday lenders about their practices, with the Labour Party proposing to place a levy on payday lenders profits, which will go towards boosting government funding to credit unions.

North Swindon MP Justin Tomlinson is calling for an increase in the licence fee required to be a payday lender and he has also signed a national Payday Loan Charter.

“The key message from this motion is that Labour believes Credit Unions are a much more appropriate money lender to provide short-term credit to people than payday lenders,” said Coun Grant.

“Credit Unions are a body you can trust and are often embedded in communities.

“They will provide reliable and trustworthy financial advice and they won’t engage in irresponsible practices like 5,000 per cent interest rates, causing misery to people who are often vulnerable.

“There was a time in the UK where people were able to receive short-term loans from credit unions and there was no such thing as payday lenders.

Now the situation is that there are proliferations of payday lenders who are ruthlessly targeting people to use their company through advertisements and favourable positions on the High Street and shopping centres, in order to drive up their profits.

“We want to reverse this trend and restore credit unions to their rightful place as the best and most-used bodies to provide short-term credit to people in need of it.”

In Plymouth the council has already introduced similar rules. Coun Grant said this has dramatically reduced the amount of advertising space payday lenders can use, while boosting capital for credit unions to support families in need of short-term credit.

“What we want is for Swindon to follow Plymouth's lead and that is why I am bringing forward this motion,” he said.

The full council meeting will take place at 7pm.