A BUSINESS in Salisbury is not only supporting the Journal’s Show Some Sense campaign but also taking its own steps to combat the impact of parking charges.

After reading this week’s Journal, Mick Martin, owner of the Wiltshire Gallery in Fisherton Street, has decided to offer a discount of £2.20 – the equivalent of the two-hour parking charge in the city car parks – to anyone spending £20 or more on paintings, prints, cars or picture framing.

“The Journal article made me think,” said Mr Martin. “Given the intransigence of those who purport to represent us but who, in the words of our local MP 'don't understand Salisbury', I asked myself what could be done until we get the chance to vote to remove them.

“As well as campaigning to change the situation in the future, I think that some sort of action to fight its effects in the present is also necessary. The new charges are already having an effect – you only have to look at the spaces in the car parks to see that. And a number of businesses, my own included, are already seeing a reduction in trade.”

Mr Martin says he hopes his decision will benefit not only his business but also his customers and other traders in the town and said if it proves successful he will continue to run it until either “the council reintroduces the one hour parking band and reduces the cost of al day parking to £6, as the Journal campaign demands” or “until their apparently crazy, lazy thinking forces me out of business”, whichever comes first.