OVER the last weeks and months I’ve been following the debate about parking charges in Wiltshire and have finally been forced to put pen to paper.

One of the arguments put forward by Wiltshire Council for increasing the parking charges is to make it fair across Wiltshire.

The councillors who proposed this, obviously do not consider Salisbury as part of Wiltshire.

I frequently park in both Warminster and Chippenham.

Warminster has always been cheaper for parking than Salisbury, however as there is free parking available I have not recently paid to park.

In Chippenham it costs ₤1.70 for two hours whereas in Salisbury it costs ₤2.80 for two hours.

This is blatantly not fair or in anyway consistent across the county.

Yesterday (Saturday) my husband and I visited Salisbury and were amazed at the number of cars in the central car park.

We have not seen this number of cars for many months (possibly years), not even at Christmas was the car park so full.

Free parking had enticed the shoppers back to Salisbury.

Surely this clearly demonstrates that the parking charges are crippling Salisbury. When will our councillors act? I fear never.

Wiltshire Council sits in its ‘Ivory Towers’ in Trowbridge and has no concern for the southern, more isolated parts of the county. Jane Scott demonstrated her disregard for Salisbury by declining to visit following the nerve agent attack, hiding behind illness. This illness did not prevent her from making three visits to the House of Lords.

Somebody please sort out the parking charges – make them equal across Wiltshire if they are going to or tell us the truth as to why Salisbury parking charges are so far out of sync with the rest of Wiltshire.

Wiltshire Council, now that Salisbury has hit the head lines (for the wrong reasons) perhaps you will take notice of us and realise that your greed is crippling our beautiful city.

Rachel Ryan, Hindon