IN her demands for parking charges to be set by the Salisbury Area Board Cllr Helena McKeown arrogantly disenfranchises the thousands of residents of the Southern Wiltshire and South West Wiltshire community areas who park in Salisbury.

Why should she seek to ignore their opinions as expressed through those two area boards?

Cllr Richard Britton A

lderbury & Whiteparish division

HAVING read the correspondence in this newspaper over the past fortnight, I have been astonished no one has understood the fundamental issue of increased parking charges in Salisbury.

No one who lives or works in Salisbury will decide on the amount of increase of parking charges. Locals and visitors will just have to accept it. Parking charges will increase: it is the only option offered by Tory councillors in Trowbridge.

How much the increase will be will also be decided in Trowbridge.

I was at the Salisbury Area Board meeting where I heard Dr McKeown's well received comments, as reported in last week's Journal. She is correct - parking issues and needs of parking in Salisbury should be decided by Salisbury.

There is no local accountability for decisions made in North Wiltshire that immediately affect us here in South Wiltshire. The Tory councillors in North Wilts know they can impose any decision on Salisbury and South Wilts and continue to keep their seats.

Not one South Wilts councillor is allowed to serve in the cabinet in Trowbridge by the controlling Tories. Wiltshire Unitary Authority is run so that the system is against Salisbury's representatives being accountable to Salisbury's electorate.

I suggest people who, in these pages, have constructively contributed alternatives to the Trowbridge imposed parking charge increase, join the campaign to form a South Wiltshire Unitary Authority.

This new UA would serve the county south of the Plain, separate from Trowbridge. It would restore local decisions to local representatives who are accountable to local people.

When Salisbury's park and ride system is removed, it will not be because Salisbury wished it, Trowbridge will have decided it to be so. A South Wilts UA could instead, integrate the local bus service providers and the park and ride system to work together for the benefit of people who live and work or visit Salisbury.

Currently, Salisbury's Area Board does not get to keep or spend revenue raised from parking in Salisbury on Salisbury. That money is taken by Trowbridge for North Wilts. However, the local Area Board get to spend a reduced budget, by the grace of Trowbridge, on a put upon Youth Service. In this way, South Wilts representatives get the blame for cuts to public services imposed by Trowbridge while Trowbridge councillors simultaneously give themselves a 30 per cent pay rise.

The current Unitary Authority offers zero accountability and zero value for money. As Dr McKeown observes, South Wilts currently offers political balance, which is good for democracy. Let's organise South Wiltshire properly ourselves.

To have influence on parking charges, we need a South Wilts UA. The real issue is not about the upcoming increase in parking charges, but how South Wiltshire is run.

Reeten Banerji

Prospective Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate for Salisbury