In response to Cllr Kearney’s letter on August 17, it is true that I can now park for £1.80 between 7.40am and 8.40am on a Sunday, but what she conveniently seems to overlook is that when I want to attend the 8am church service and then stay centrally and shop for a couple of hours afterwards, I am now faced with three options. 

I can either pay £1.80 to attend the 8am service then drive eight miles back home for two hours and come back into town for 10.30am when the shops open (after paying another £3.30, so £5.10 in total), or I can pay £17 to attend the church service, sit in my car for two hours and then go shopping (parking from 8am to 12.30pm now incurs a charge of £17), or I could simply drive to somewhere else where they still have a sensible parking regime. Before these ridiculous new charges were introduced I could stay in Winchester all day on a Sunday for £2.10.

Also, when I collect my fish and chip supper from one of the excellent outlets in the city centre on a Saturday evening after 7pm I now have to pay the new overnight charge of £3.30 while I collect it.

I do not want a refund, I would simply like Cllr Kearney to explain how she believes that an increase of over 700 per cent in parking charges is justified and how does she consider that the cavalier actions of the city council in this matter go in any way to them achieving their carbon neutral objective? 

Come on WCC, get in our world, stop hiding behind the climate change agenda, reconsider these punishing new charges, and make them balanced, fair and affordable to all.

Olive Bramley,
Northbrook,
Micheldever

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