I SUPPOSE the days when the big estates and their local communities coexisted in mutual support and respect have ended, and the Maristow Estate?s proposal to introduce charges for parking at Yelverton marks their passing. Joseph Hess?s assertion (Times, March 30) that ?it?s been there (free parking) since time immemorial? is a very good reason, paradoxically, for leaving it alone. His claim that money is needed for repairs seems extraordinarily disingenuous. There is precious little evidence that repairs have been carried out, or, indeed that any are needed. If they were I am sure the local community would be prepared to take on that responsibility. (I guess that the Leg O?Mutton park would have been tarmaced originally by the MOD for RAF Harrowbeer. They did a good job). That parking charges will blight the small economy of Yelverton seems inevitable. Charges cannot possibly help. The estate might have been expected to have had some regard for that aspect, assuming that it felt itself to be part of the community. The greatest sadness for me, however, stems from the impact that meters and all the paraphernalia of parking charges, will have on the mood and appearance of this rural village of Yelverton on Dartmoor. West Devon is one of the last outposts of rural England, and it derives much of its charm and appeal from that fact. You would have thought that Joseph Hess, and those in the Maristow Estate, would ? more than any of the rest of us ? cherish this rural lifestyle, and feel some responsibility for it, and be the very last of all people to want to undermine or diminish it in any way; especially at the risk of souring the good relations ? the social symbiosis ? upon which a rural community depends. How sad it all is. There must be a better way forward. Brian Leavey Rattery Bank Harrowbeer Lane Yelverton