IT is very easy for politicians to blame someone else! (Letter from Cllr Eberlie, March 3). However, West Devon Borough Council have a monopoly on car parking and they alone are the ones who dictate the level of parking charges in Tavistock and Okehampton. Over the last four years the council has adopted a consistent policy to increase charges at extortionate rates of over ten times inflation, against the recommendations of the Audit Commission. As a result, one hour?s parking, which cost 40p in March, 2001, is now proposed to be £1 per hour from April, 2005, whilst it is proposed that season tickets will go up from £150 to £650 per annum (over four times!) in the same period. In the meantime, adjoining authorities such as South Hams and North Cornwall, who are under similar budgetary pressures, have kept the car parking prices in their market towns at sensible levels - such as currently 40p an hour for Launceston and Ivybridge. Over the last four years Tavistock Forward has been working hard to promote the viability and vitality of the town to bring it back to greater economic health, following the devastation caused by foot and mouth. All these efforts will have been to no avail and impossible to sustain if the local authority do not reverse their unjustifiable charging policy. It is time our local councillors recognised that car parks should be provided as a service for the benefit of the community and not used solely as a tax on those who visit, work and live in the area. John G Taylor Chairman Tavistock Forward
