Letter: Where does parking fee money go?

Letter: Have you ever wondered why car parking charges are so high in municipal car parks? I can understand private car parks charging a high fee, they do so to make a profit and as it's their land it's their right to do so.

As a car owner you pay for a road licence which goes to build and maintain roads and motorways. Your £160 fee works out at just over 1.8 pence per hour which enables you to keep your car on the road for all 8,760 hours there are in each year.

For that 1.8 pence per hour your roads are maintained, swept, have road signs, traffic lights and even those nice men and women in cars with blue lights on the top to help you out when you inadvertently go too fast. Along with all the other emergency services at your call each and every hour it's pretty good value for money.

Why then are car parks owned by us, like hospital car parks, charging us so much money to park our cars when we go to visit people that are ill, or to transport them to and from the hospital's for treatment?

Surly the cost of the car parks, which we have already paid for, should be more in line with our road network charges? They are, after all, provided far less in terms of a service.

Michael Wilkinson

Ketley