Park and get taken for a ride

LET me make something clear. Unlike many people, I can afford to pay £1.50 to park my car for an hour. In that respect I’m lucky, and I know it.

But I don’t do it. Or at least, I do it as infrequently as possible.

I can’t exactly say why. Some psychological barrier has gone up.

It used to be that if I had an errand in town on a day off, I’d happily pay £1 to park for an hour, or even stretch to two hours, and spend any leftover time browsing, possibly buying the occasional frock or pair of shoes on impulse. To my husband’s relief, I don’t do that any more.

Since I retired as a Journal reporter I have more leisure time than I’ve ever had in my life. But do I use it to boost city centre trade? Sadly, I confess, I do not.

Let’s take an example. Once a month on a Wednesday morning I buy a chicken from Tom and Mark at the farmers’ market (best chicken for miles around, by the way).

To collect it, either I nip in to a bay on Milford Street and pay 20p for 15 minutes, or, if I’ve got two or three small errands like a trip to the bank that have piled up, I pay for half an hour – again, on a meter.

Anyone who’s had dealings with a traffic warden knows that means that you don’t hang about, let alone mosey round the shops.

What I do much less often than in the past is go into any car park – whether owned by Wiltshire Council or by the Old George Mall, which hikes its charges in line with the council’s but doesn’t seem to get lambasted for it in the same way by the general public, possibly because it’s a more convenient base for a shopping trip and you don’t have to decide in advance how long you’ll stay or risk a fine.

I know some people may argue that I have an axe to grind after being very heavily involved in the Salisbury Journal’s Show Some Sense campaign, which reflected public anger at enormous increases in the cost of parking.

But it’s not simply bloody-mindedness that keeps me out of town and my money in my purse.

I can’t explain it other than to say that the charges just feel like too much. And I suspect that’s why the campaign struck a chord with so many people.