WILTSHIRE Council failed to consult Salisbury’s chamber of commerce about parking charge increases because its contact details were not on the right database.

Instead, the letter asking for the group’s views on changes including a huge rise to £7.40 for all-day parking, the abolition of one-hour parking and the introduction of a minimum £2.20 fee in the city’s car parks was sent to the Wessex Association of Chambers of Commerce in Trowbridge.

A statement issued by the council on request of the Journal said: “During the consultation on the proposed car parking charges, we sent letters to everyone on our local transport plan database.

“We can confirm this included the Wessex Chamber of Commerce but not the Salisbury Chamber of Commerce, as the Salisbury Chamber of Commerce is not on that particular database.”

Loretta Lupi-Lawrence from the Salisbury and District Chamber of Commerce, which is a non-political and non-profit-making organisation for businesses within Salisbury and its district, said: “This goes back to December. We knew nothing about it until May this year when City Centre Management asked us to sign a letter about concerns about parking. What makes it worse is that we are in communication with the council all the time and it is a chamber member.”

She said the council’s transport portfolio holder, Dick Tonge, has now called them to offer his personal apologies for the mix-up.

Mrs Lupi-Lawrence said: “I don’t understand how on earth they could continue with a consultation with no input.

Surely they would know when nothing came back that the communication wasn’t getting through?”

Council leader Jane Scott has previously said that the limited response from Salisbury during the consultation had been taken as meaning there were no objections to the proposals.

At a meeting at the end of last month, she told the city: “We must look at what the dynamics of the city are that make it very difficult to get a response to consultation.”

She then pledged to do something about the charges, which have led to more than 7,000 people signing up to the Journal’s Show Some Sense campaign amid fears they will ruin trade and discourage visitors and residents alike from coming to the city.