I COULD hardly believe it when I read that there is a movement to impose parking charges in Hexham

I don’t mean the charges – I mean the dry and objective tone you adopt when solemnly noting that “the clamour for free parking was irresistible”.

No one did more to push the case for free parking than the Courant . For years hardly a week went by without some story on the issue, usually on the front page and certainly fanned by letters

Remember that one from the woman in Stocksfield (obviously with more money than sense) who said she would be driving to Morpeth to shop rather than pay in Hexham?

Why you find it necessary to mention the “Labour-controlled “ county council passing the problem to a Conservative town council with a “wry smile” eludes me. However, I do remember local politicians making some capital out of the generous free parking. .

Other councils seem to manage affairs so much better. In Cockermouth, to name but one, there is a system of having free parking for two hours, with payment then due for longer periods. That helps to keep cars circulating, which is surely the point. (A version of this system already exists in Corbridge.)

Why on earth should people who work in Hexham expect to have free parking in the town, effectively at the expense of taxpayers?

The handling of this whole issue has been an omnishambles.

It would be good if the Courant could contribute to sensible debate and planning; the council seems incapable of it.

TREVOR FIELD,

Hexham.