Published at 07:40, Wednesday, 12 December 2012

THE topic of parking charges is now becoming quite a saga within Tynedale and at last the people of the area are beginning to realise the impact it is having on us all.

Perhaps we should revert to the Churchill advice that we should look back into the past to find an answer to the future.

It was a great mistake of the whole of Britain to allow parking charges in the first instance, considering that the motorist pays so heavily to use the highway in the first place.

We have now a culture throughout the country that it is the God-given right of the Government, police, local authorities, and Uncle Tom Cobley and all to milk the ‘cash cow’ motorist if and when they feel like it.

Of course, we have to raise money for services. But it is how we do it that sticks in the throat of everybody.

Surely it would be much more acceptable if £5 extra was added to road tax and parking charges dispensed with.

It is interesting to observe Coun. Peter Jackson’s remarks on the solution (Courant Letters, November 23) by selling of redundant buildings which are costing a fortune to maintain.

Obviously Northumberland County Council thinks we all have short memories with regard to the millions it took from the residents of Tynedale which were accumulated by the sale of council housing.

R.L. CLARK,

Whittonstall

Published by http://www.hexhamcourant.co.uk