More to it than parking charges
I’ve heard it all now. Your front page last Friday reported Norman Stephens, chairman of the local Chamber of Trade, blaming the “high cost of parking” for loss of trade in the town. This man seriously is not on the planet inhabited by the rest of us.
The coalition Government, praised by business for its “courage” in “grasping the nettle” of “profligate public spending”, has increased VAT by 2.5 per cent, frozen public sector wages, reduced the value of pensions by uprating them by CPI, made massive cuts in public spending resulting in substantial job losses and fear of their future amongst those in work, resulting in a reluctance to spend.
Shops are closing everywhere. Thorntons, Habitat, Jane Norman, HMV, the list is endless. The cuts haven’t taken full effect yet so things will get worse.
And according to Mr Stephens it’s all Warwick District Council’s fault because of the parking charges. - R. Grenville, via email