I WAS sorry to read the protests of Tavistock business people about the hike in car parking fees.

The council received few comments after publication of our proposals in your newspaper and we were perhaps lulled into thinking car users accepted the need for the council to receive more money, both to maintain the car parks and to pay the Government?s danegeld.

Above inflation council tax and above inflation car parking charges are alike the fault of the Government. Labour has intentionally reduced its grants to local authorities year by year since coming to power. This is one of Gordon Brown?s most lethal and damaging stealth taxes.

Not long ago in your paper someone said it was all the fault of the Conservatives because we invented council tax. So we did; but under the Conservative Government, council tax rose by an average of just over 2% a year in real terms. Had it continued like that, it would have been much more acceptable.

Since Labour came to power, the average bill for a Band D property has risen from £678 to £1,086 ? a rise of more than 40%. Last year the bill rose 13% across the country and over 20% in Devon as we all know to our cost.

This year the national bill looks more like 5 or 6%. This is getting better. Locally, however, the halving of the Government grant, the imposition of new burdens (like the Licensing Act and the Homelessness Act) and masses more bureaucracy has meant another big rise in the burden we all have to pay ? in council tax, car park charges and other council fees.

Just one more thought. Our county councillor has supported the sharp reduction in the number of on-street car parking spaces in the town centre. This is happening just at the moment when we need more spaces in our thriving community.

If any of your readers would care to suggest where and how more could be provided ? without great expense ? I would be glad to hear about it.

Dick Eberlie

Leader, Conservative Group

West Devon Borough Council

MAY I add my voice to the protest about the latest hike in car parking charges and ask why they are so much more than our neighbouring towns of Okehampton and Launceston? Is it because:

1, Tavistock is such a successful town with a wonderful range of shops that the Borough Council feels it can get away with hitting the car owner every couple of years for the privilege of parking there, even though it does nothing to improve the availability of parking spaces?

2. Having managed to foul up the traffic flow into Tavistock with mini roundabouts, road humps and crossings, the county council now needs to raise more money by targeting the motorist in order to pay for these and any future extravagances?

3. That there are some on the council who have aspirations to become Devon?s answer to Ken Livingstone.

Whatever the reasons, a 20p increase is absolutely disgraceful and the answer is always the same, blame the Government, hit the motorist and say that they would have otherwise had to raise council tax.

When are our councillors going to realise that people who use their cars are often the ones that spend most money in the shops and market? Those responsible have done a great disservice to the town and I hope this is remembered when they are due for re-election.

Paul Mercer

Ivy Cottage

Peter Tavy