LETTER: Parking penalties punish those who would spend in Burnley

I USED to own a car which, following a series of unpaid parking fines for overrunning my disc by five minutes or being parked in a residents’ only area, was eventually clamped and sold at auction for £1,200, a third of its actual value.

By The Newsroom

Published 10th Mar 2011, 13:26 BST

If we are to welcome outsiders to our town, be they fans of another football team or tourists visiting Towneley and Gawthorpe Halls or our famous Weavers’ Triangle, why not provide them with free parking, not to mention us residents?

Surely the longer we or they remain here the more money everyone we will spend.

So what does Parkwise do? It punishes visitors for outstaying their welcome with £60 fines, which double, triple and quadruple, if we cannot afford to pay them.

It now costs to park outside Towneley Hall and even in the picturesque Tudor hamlet of Hurstwood.

By all means let the council remove cars that are uninsured and untaxed and sell them on, but allow the bona fide tourist and football fan to come here and feel welcome.

STEVE CHAPPLES

WOODGROVE ROAD

BURNLEY

Burnley Tudor