Parking charges put people off the town

Given the amount of trouble that the high street is in, I thought that our all knowing, all clever councils (local and district) would be trying to encourage us back to the town centre in the hope of keeping businesses afloat and enjoying the summer time in our glorious town. However, I went into town on Saturday and reminded myself why I don’t bother - roadworks and overpriced parking being the main contributor. The decision to increase the on-street parking fees is not only annoying when rooting for that extra 20p but it is not good value for money - despite whatever the governing bodies say. If it was it would reflect somewhere like Crickhowell (Wales) where it cost me £1 for three hours parking the other week. Is it any wonder Beauchamp Avenue, Grove Street and Binswood Avenue are now full come 10am on a Saturday morning? Free parking, a nice walk and a couple of quid better off to go and spend in one of Leamington’s several hundred coffee shops.

But the best one has to be Augusta Place and other streets surrounding the cinema. I can cope with the fact that parking times have now gone up to 10pm. Our local authorities are greedier than a pig round a trough and this I expect. However, I went to see Harry Potter with the wife and kids the other night. I didn’t even mind paying the £40 odd it now costs to take a family of four to the pictures.

What really got me is that the film ran for over two hours. But what is the maximum stay on the surrounding roads? Two hours! The nearest place to park for over two hours was Bedford Street car park, which was full.

It’s hard to fathom how anyone in local government thinks, where there common sense is and if one day, they may be able to think with their brains and not with their behinds! If anyone from the council is reading this, treat it as an open letter. And if you have the mental capacity to reply with a sensible answer, please do so. However I fully expect you to be throwing my council tax down the toilet in some new scheme that will somehow benefit the blah, blah, zzzzzzzzzz. - Tony Stark, Acacia Road, Leamington.