TO whom it may concern.

Can I make it absolutely clear that as a council tax-payer in the Forest of Dean I do not want car park charges introduced. I would rather pay a slightly higher council tax.

I do not agree that it will make shopping in town centres easier, in fact it will make it more stressful having to find the right change for the meters and having to keep checking the time to ensure that I will not get an excess parking ticket.

Car parking charges are detrimental to town centres. Shoppers will be rushing to do the shopping and not browsing, which is where many sales are achieved.

How can visitors enjoy our Forest towns when they have the spectre of possible parking fines?

We want visitors to come to the Forest and stay, not be driven away after a couple of hours. The knock-on effect of car park charges is not worth it.

If the council need to save money then they should be looking at why these car parks are costing £163,000 per year to maintain.

– Dennis Phillips, Morgan.