Dear Editor, Well, it’s official – the councillors in North Lanarkshire have lost their minds.

How else can you explain the decision to introduce car parking charges in Airdrie and Coatbridge town centres?

The town centres have arguably never been less appealing places to visit and now they are going to give people another excuse to stay clear?

Talk about the death of the high street.

The Advertiser was quite right to have a pop at the SNP and Tory councillors who didn’t want parking charges introduced but chose to vote for their own amendments, meaning the minority Labour administration was able to pass it through [Advertiser, February 5].

I cannot think there will be any people living in Airdrie or Coatbridge – or visitors from further afield – who think this is a good idea.

What are people going to be paying to park for – to go to charity shops, tanning salons and pubs and cafes?

Why bother when you can pocket the cash and do your shopping either online or elsewhere?

Don’t forget we have Glasgow on our doorstep and a train line that takes us straight to Edinburgh.

If you have the choice of spending £4 on parking your car in Airdrie or Coatbridge or getting the train to Glasgow, what are you going to do? I think I can confidently predict the answer most people would give.

I am very proud of being from Airdrie, and have family members who live in Coatbridge, but if you think the town centres are attractive prospects for shoppers, then you are sadly kidding yourself.

I urge the council to re-think this decision and use the time between now and the planned introduction of the car parking charges to come up with an alternative solution.

Otherwise they can forget either town centre ever having a chance at recovery. Billy Foster, Airdrie, via email