IN STATING that the aim of on-street parking charges is to prevent commuters from clogging up spaces meant for shoppers, Councillor Andy Kay shows himself to be either a stranger to the truth or an expert in self-deception.

Parking in these spaces was generally limited to half an hour or an hour anyway, which means that a commuter would have had to leave his work at frequent intervals, get into his car and drive round until he had found somewhere else to park.

Can anyone in his senses believe that this is what happened?

I see that no reason was given for the forthcoming increase in parking charges, this is at least preferable to being presented with fatuous excuses for increasingly plundering the public of its mostly hard-earned money.

TJ LONGSTAFF, Gorse Road, Blackburn.