PLEASE reconsider.

That is our message to Ian Taylor, Bolton Council's head of parking services, about the decision to charge the Guide Dogs for the Blind Association for parking.

As our story today reveals, trainee guide dogs and their instructors had been exempt from on-street parking charges for their vans.

But since the council took over parking enforcement powers, the charity has been told that no longer applies.

It means the GDBA will have to pay around £8,000 in parking charges.

The many people who give generously to the charity do not expect their money to be used in that way.

While we accept that Mr Taylor has inherited a complex situation where many organisations claim they had always been treated as special cases in the past, we think that the majority of people will accept that the GBDA is an extra special case.

It is an essential part of training guide dogs that they learn to copy with busy town centres. Obviously that is where their instructors must walk them.To do that they have to park in the centre.

Mr Taylor has said he is happy to meet charity representatives and we hope a satisfactory arrangement can be arrived at.

In the meantime, the GBDA are appealing to businesses with town centre parking facilities to allow them to park free of charge.

We urge representatives of such businesses to offer their parking areas to this very worthwhile charity.