IF you park your car on the high street in Winchester for up to 30 minutes, you take a ticket from the same type of vending machine recently installed in Salisbury. The difference is the ticket costs nothing. It is noticeable that the turnover of parked cars reflects that many drivers have an incentive to get in and out in less than 30 minutes. Also there seem to be fewer empty retail shops and markedly fewer cafés and coffee bars.

A lesson for Salisbury? Or are we perhaps already developing a similar sensible scheme in the city?

As has been said in previous correspondence, also needing attention are the time-wasting traffic lights at most roundabouts, and the money and time spent on ‘park and ride’. The laws of unintended consequences by local authorities that mean well.

RICHARD SHARPE

Pitton