SALISBURY’S MP John Glen has said Wiltshire Council does not understand the challenges facing city retailers and should carry out a study of the impact on trade.

If they do nothing else, he said, they should freeze the new charges for five years “to give people some assurance things aren’t going to get any worse”.

Mr Glen wrote to Wiltshire protesting against the charges in December and said he has “continued to apply pressure as best I could”.

“The council is imposing a Wiltshire-wide policy and that doesn’t suit Salisbury, because our competitors are outside the county.

“There doesn’t seem to be a mechanism in an authority of this size to take account of our different retail profile. This is why we didn’t want to see the abolition of the district council. The root of the problem is that park and ride has never been viable and until it fits in with working hours you won’t be able to make it work.”

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