LAST weekend my wife and I went to visit a friend in Ely.

Ely has a lot in common with Salisbury. It is a medieval city, it has a cathedral, Waitrose, Sainsbury's, independent shops, restaurants, cafes, a museum and relies to a great extent on tourism and associated outside income.

Where it differs from Salisbury is the welcome the city extends to visitors. In the attachments is the sign outside the municipal car park opposite the cathedral where we parked. Apparently all car parks in Ely are the same.

Justin Smith,

Salisbury

I WAS more than a little surprised to read Cllr Tom Corbin’s claim that I am deliberately ‘not talking’ about a national consultation around the creation of a framework within which people can challenge the parking policies of their local councils.

To be honest, it is news to me that we cannot already challenge parking policies – I have done it, the Salisbury Journal did it and so did numerous individuals, prompting concessions on late afternoon parking and the one-hour tariff, not to mention the ongoing reconsideration by County Hall. I am all for cross-party efforts to ensure that Salisbury gets the best possible deal within Wiltshire and I have never been reticent about taking up constituents’ issues with parking and transport directly with local decision makers.

Petitions and political point scoring may get you noticed but in my experience they are far less likely to achieve the desired result than detailed and considered engagement with the issues. To me, the measure of success is not how loudly I shout but how realistic and effective I can make my interventions.

With parking fitting into the same council budget pot as rural bus subsidies, it would be helpful to understand which rural bus services Cllr Corbin thinks should be cut in order to fund additional subsidised parking in Salisbury – or is he suggesting an increase in council tax?

I hope he may wish to join with those of us who are not content to just seek new ways to complain but who are committed to the search for a balanced local solution that doesn’t impact adversely on other areas of local transport spending.

John Glen MP

Member of Parliament for Salisbury