New park and ride policy misses the point

Sir, – Why do people use the Halbeath and Ferrytoll park and ride facilities (Courier, February 26)?

No doubt, some people use it to park their car for free while they go on holiday (though they still need a lift from a friend or a bus or a taxi from the airport to get to it on their return). Some use it as a convenient place to park while going off by bus to Dunfermline, Edinburgh, Glasgow or Livingston to shop. Some use it, of course, to avoid taking a car into the capital for work, and this group could face an approximate increase in travel costs of £250 per year when the £1 charge for parking is introduced.

This is on top of the relatively modest increase in council tax of which we are all soon to be notified. Some of these people will fall into the category of the income tax payer facing an increase from April. If they’re only getting a modest increase in salary and wage, they are entitled to feel aggrieved.

The policy could well lead to a decrease in bus journey, as Stagecoach fears. It may also lead to people trying to park their cars somewhere in Dunfermline, as close to the complex as they can get.

It is difficult to predict exactly how drivers will react. All the more reason, it seems to me, why Fife Council should have done a bit more research before taking the decision to charge. These days authorities need to take into account a host of environmental issues before introducing a step of this kind. Nobody in Fife House seems to have done that. They seem to have acted in a fit of pique, annoyed at those who sought to keep down their holiday costs, and it is not too late to look at the whole matter a gain. Bob Taylor. 24 Shiel Court, Glenrothes.

Picture: Steve Brown. Ferrytoll Park and Ride, near Inverkeithing.