Parking fees put me off using shops

The fact of the matter is that demand for parking in the area is, to use the term that economists use, ‘inelastic’. That means that the demand for parking in our towns is heavily dependent on the price charged. Putting it another way, what we are seeing is motorists voting with their feet (or more accurately with their wheels!) and going elsewhere for the services they require, to the detriment of the livelihoods of many excellent rate-paying shopkeepers.

I am sure I am not alone in balancing the cost of parking with the distance I need to walk to satisfy my basic shopping needs using free parking areas. When a charge of 20p for 30 minutes was introduced, I occasionally judged that worthwhile for the convenience of visiting my preferred shops. Since it got doubled to 40p I have never done so. If the charges are increased again and further restrictions imposed, I will simply transfer my allegiance to the out of town superstores. And if they are forced to charge, then I will shop online. (This already accounts for more than 40 per cent of our household expenditure.)

Parking charges should be scrapped for shoppers spending up to 90 minutes in our town centres - that is the way to encourage shoppers using other local towns to come to ours, and it will save the huge costs of compliance and collecting money for short term parking! - Peter Haine, Weston under Wetherley, Leamington.