LETTERS
From A. H. Williams, Ryde:
CANCELLING the resident’s parking permit is very short sighted. While one might agree the OAP version was under priced; even the £200 version represented reasonable value.
During the past two years we have been able to buy our permits up front and go in to town to shop, visit or socialise when we felt like it, free from the need to carry a pile of change for parking. The end result has certainly been more support for town-centre shops and less side-street parking.
Now we are faced with paying every time, or taking the easy option and going straight to the supermarket and parking free of charge and worry.
With the parking permits, the council had a good up-front slice of cash to budget with at the beginning of the year. Now it will have uncertainty and the problem of collecting large quantities of cash from meters several times a day (if we use them). Of course, OAPs could use free bus passes more, leading to higher subsidy payments to the bus company.
Why cancel permits while you dither over a new parking plan? Leave the permits in place until you have a better plan. OK, maybe increase the OAP version to be a bit more realistic, but leave the £200 version unchanged.
It might have got you votes last time round but every pound into a parking meter from now on will remind us of who not to vote for next time.
From James Wilson, Newport:
Workers affected: I read with utter dismay the council has taken it upon itself to abolish parking permits. How about considering those of us who work on the mainland, earning money to pay for County Hall and those who tread its boards?
Some of the council services I support but others I find are a total waste, as I’m sure do many others.
I note the council intends to raise an extra £750,000 by abolishing permits but no consideration whatsoever has been given to the hundreds of people, like myself, who make the daily commute to the mainland, safe in the knowledge that in the event of extended stays or ferry cancellations, we will not come home to find excess charge notices on our cars.
Many people, like myself, based decisions to work on the mainland on the economics of the permit. Some of us will now be faced with having to look for work on the Island, which is already deprived of job opportunities.
Given our council leader’s recent performance at Cowes Yacht Haven, please do not reduce policing any further.