SHEER arrogance drips from every word of Cllr Gethyn. P. Davies' letter in this week's Review!

 How dare you tell us, the population of this lovely part of England, to '...pay up and shut up'?

And it's hardly the 'odd few' who are 'whingeing on about the parking charges' is it? Hardly a week has gone by since the scheme was announced when there hasn't been two or three letters about this scheme, almost everyone in protest against it. The great majority (and note that last word....) of the people who live in the Forest of Dean have shown themselves to be against the scheme, and if there was a district election today I'll bet that very few of the 22 councillors, named in John Davis' letter in the same issue, would be re-elected, by the same majority that are against the parking charges now.

As for Cllr Davies' comment on 'Why should we pay council tax for car parking in the Forest and never use them?', my wife and I don't use the libraries either and our two daughters have never lived in the Forest and never went to school here, but we pay for the libraries and the education of the Forests's children and always have done. Is Cllr Davies suggesting that we'll be getting a reduction in our council tax next April because of this? I doubt that very much indeed!

Comments about the parking charges in Chepstow have little relevance here. They are charged in a country that has a different taxation regime, and have been in place for many years. Here in the Forest the scheme is a big change in the way things have been working, and there is no quid pro quo. People whose business relies on them using the car parking have no chance to regain the cost of the charges except to pass them on to their customers. We, who are the customers, have no-one to pass our charges on to, do we? And you still expect us to '..shut up...' Councillor Davies? Some chance!

I have two large A4 signs which say 'Undemocratic Parking Charge Paid Under Protest' which are displayed on my car every time I have no choice but to park in the Forest car parks and they're going to be used for some time to come. If the 'pay up and shut up' routine had held sway throughout UK's history we would be knee-deep in unpopular taxes by now.

Instead the populace did what it has always done in such cases and voted the proponents of such taxes out of office.

It's called 'democracy', as many of Cllr Davies' colleagues may discover at the time of the next district elections.

– Kit Spackman, 15 Stanford Road, Lydney.