Parking charges

I am often astounded as to how little our local authorities understand public opinion and how they fail to learn from each other's mistakes.

Firstly Telford & Wrekin Council ignores objections and imposes parking charges in selected areas. After civil disobedience from the people of Newport there is a humiliating climbdown.

Unfortunately, Newport had to be punished by having their once lovely High Street bespoiled by a new traffic scheme - but that is another story.

Then Shropshire County Council decides to introduce on-street parking charges in Ludlow just before the Christmas period when most traders take a significant proportion of their yearly profit.

As predicted, this greatly damaged trade and SCC had to suspend the scheme. They plan to reintroduce it this year when the consequences will obviously be the same.

At about the same time they also reintroduced traffic wardens in Shrewsbury. Like a lot of others, I had not been aware that there had been no parking controls for a number of years.

I had not noticed traffic chaos or queues. Did we really need to be saddled with this in the festive season? Even when two of the major car parks were unusable through flooding, the tickets were issued like confetti.

When are our local authorities going to appreciate that this county needs thriving and successful trading to keep our towns alive and vibrant.

Drive the trade away with silly schemes such as parking charges and congestion charges and there will be no-one left to pay the council tax which, in turn, funds staff salaries and elected members' expenses.

Jon Lakin, Shrewsbury