Letter: Parking rules are killing Shrewsbury

Letter: I have watched with dismay our beautiful thriving Shrewsbury slowly slip into a town of charity shops, coffee shops and very little else.

Would you not think with our country in the middle of a depression that our council would be helping to make our town as vibrant, accessible and welcoming as possible?

I see shops shutting all around us and over the last few months I have witnessed on Sunday mornings innocent visitors who have parked on a "no yellow" lined street outside the old post office. Each and every one of them receives a ticket.

Or at 7.30pm, tickets being randomly handed out over parking misdemeanours!

I was in a shop on Mardol the other day and listened to a woman frantically asking for her package that she was picking up and said "they won't give me a minute and are scowling at me, why do they need to be so unfriendly?"

Surely common sense must prevail?

How are businesses to survive if customers cannot pull up and pick up /drop off items with the fear of being given a ticket ?

How are we to survive if the first and last image we give our visitors is an unwelcoming one?

Our council needs to be accountable for this and the damage that these traffic wardens are doing .

Can we not look at parking lots with free parking at certain times?

We may have the competition of retail parks and superstores on the outskirts of our town, which is bad enough, but what we do have is independent, bespoke shops and galleries with creativity and flair, fringe cinema and a beautiful theatre, lovely restaurants and bars that they cannot compete with.

So help us please.

We need all the help we can get.

Ann DiTella

Shrewsbury