SIR: It is becoming increasingly obvious that the council is completely wrong-headed in its approach to car parking in Bolton town centre. I recently spent an enjoyable Sunday afternoon in Manchester, where on-street parking was free and the place consequently buzzing. Meanwhile Bolton Metro quixotically believe that they can coax motorists from their cars by imposing swingeing parking charges at all times. Done unilaterally, the net result is rather to force antagonized driver/shoppers to go elsewhere not hop on a bus. There are empty spaces galore at the bottom of Church Bank. Since the arrival there of the mindless meter, drivers have declined the invitation of a surcharge and gone somewhere else. But beware! If the 'somewhere else' was Eagle Street, previously free on-street double yellow lines now await.

The political justification for this, and other, attempts by the council to raise money misses the trick. It is only possible to blame Government cuts for so much. After a while a sense of desperate opportunism can be detected, and is not to the council's credit.

Mark Weatherall

Galindo Street, Bradshaw

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.