Parking charges killing Angus high streets

Madam, – Can someone please tell us how we stop our council from destroying the high streets of Angus?

Last week, despite all the evidence, the council leader told us their punitive tax on parking within Angus was “a done deal”.

This is identical to the rhetoric coming out of Westminster at present.

I defy anyone other than these myopic councillors to defend this disastrous decision.

The considerable loss of shoppers to our high streets caused by the council’s actions was always going to force the closure of many small businesses.

Now with the closure of Goodfellow and Steven in Carnoustie, we see the impact this venal system is having on larger traders as well (Parking policy blamed for Angus café closure, Courier May 14).

A huge amount of our high street traders are owner-run businesses who earn significantly less than the expenses claimed by most councillors, let alone what these councillors are paid. This huge loss of potential customers will make many shops unprofitable whilst our elected bureaucrats continue trying to break a “butterfly on a wheel”.

On a visit to the Borders last week I was immediately struck by the fact that none of the towns, such as Kelso, Peebles, Melrose, Jedburgh etc, charged for parking in their well laid-out car parks.

Unsurprisingly, their high streets seemed to be doing well, with a healthy level of visitors and locals making use of the shops and businesses within their towns.

If they have even a scintilla of doubt about this statement they should take a pleasant day trip down to the Borders.

They can park easily for free and the benefit should be instantly obvious to our councillors.

They will see the correlation between good adequate parking and trade as opposed to punitive parking and empty shops.

They should not need to go to these lengths, however, to see that people do not expect to have to pay £1 for the ability to buy a Courier a stamp or some small present or gift in the small towns of Angus.

Nor will tourists bother stopping if they have to hunt around for their debit card or phone.

Someone needs to take charge of this debacle and sort it out as anyone can see that within a few months boarded-up shops will become a feature of small Angus towns as they rapidly become uneconomic. David V Jones. 6 Knowes Loan, Carnoustie.