I FEEL that I must reply to the letter headed 'Stop whingeing' written by Cllr Gethyn Davies.

His 'I am in charge' attitude towards the 'odd few' who keep on whingeing about parking charges and then politely orders those 'odd few' to just 'pay up and shut up' shows a complete disregard to some of the people who may have elected him to the position of councillor and who he now represents.

In fact the 'odd few' could include some of the 4,000 plus people who signed the petition against the introduction of car parking charges.

I can understand that for Gethyn Davies, Chepstow is the more convenient town to visit than one of the four main Forest towns due to Chepstow's nearness to his Tidenham Ward and perhaps where he lives, but his vote to implement parking charges does not find favour with those who live in the area of the four main Forest towns.

Once you establish the principle of paying a charge for something it becomes easy to increase that charge in the future. Cllr Davies lists the parking charges for Monmouthshire that have been in place for some years now. I doubt that they were originally that high.

When I first came to live in Lydney some 30 years ago I travelled to Bristol over the Severn Bridge everyday at a toll of 20p each way. That charge has now increased to £6.00 for the round trip.

In another local paper last week the headline front page story was that during the first week of the car parking charges the Lydney Co-op had its store turnover fall by some £20,000, whilst further along Newerne Street a smaller businesses had its turnover fall by some £1,500.

The fall in turnover for the smaller business was confirmed by a person connected to the business who complained that customers were not popping in to buy the smaller items. It was mid-afternoon last Friday and adjacent to both of these businesses the main Albert Street car park was somewhat less than half full whilst the overspill car park contained just four cars.

Maybe some time in the future if Cllr Davies were to visit Lydney he may see the result of his voting decision, the empty shops, but he will not see the people that have lost their livelihoods.

Close to Cllr Davies' letter was another headed 'Parking stupidity' by John Davis, of Bream, containing a list of the councillors who voted to implement car parking charges.

I have just received my poll card informing me to vote in the Lydney town council east ward elections on Thursday August 2. I shall have to read down that list again to see if it helps me in my choice when I come to vote.

– Michael Nixon, Lydney.