I AM surprised not to have seen any letters in your columns concerning Harborough District Council's proposals regarding increased car parking charges from next April. Perhaps people are making their comments directly to the council.
In order to comment, I would be interested to know whether, in the Commons car park, the majority of tickets issued are for one, two, four hours duration.
If they are for one hour, then it would seem inappropriate to do away with this charge, even
if it were to rise by 30 pence. In this instance a 50 pence charge for two hours would also not be unreasonable in view of considerably higher charges in car parks in other towns of similar size.
I do, however, have one concern whatever new charges are decided upon, and that is that Walcot Road will become an even more desirable free car park than it is already. There are presently 12 to 15 cars parked for most of the day at the end of this residential street which, apart from being a visual blot on the landscape, also represent a considerable annual loss of parking fees to HDC.
I have raised this matter with one of my ward councillors who tells me that “nothing can be done”, which I consider to be a rather defeatist attitude by the council who should be seeking to maximise their income from all sources – short of raising council tax!
J Morley,
Walcot Road, Harborough.
