ONCE again, the self-appointed "Parkers' Watchdog" (Letters, August 27) seems to ignore the facts. Contrary to his assertion, the general charges for on-street and off-street parking in Bury town centre have not increased twice this year.

Parking charges were increased by 10p across all tariff bands on April 6 this year. On-street and off-street parking charges were varied at the same time, with both sides of The Rock being made the same to avoid confusion of differing tariffs.

Details of investigations into the controversy surrounding photographic evidence which was presented to the parking adjudicator were given to "Parkers' Watchdog" on this page on May 21 and we are now awaiting the outcome of the police investigation. But the matter has not been "conveniently forgotten".

The level Penalty Charge Notices are not imposed by NCP Ltd. Penalty charges are set in line with the Department for Transport (DfT) circular. When implementing the scheme in October 2002, Bury MBC chose the mid-level penalty charge of £60 (with discount of £30 for payment within 14 days). NCP Ltd carries out the enforcement of parking regulations on behalf of Bury MBC. This relates to on-street traffic waiting and parking restrictions, plus all of the public off-street car parks.

I can assure "Parkers' Watchdog" that NCP parking attendants are not given a daily quota of notices. The number of penalty charge notices issued is dictated by the number of parkers who contravene traffic regulations. "Parkers' Watchdog" plucks out a fantasy figure of £4.25million for parking penalty charges income. In fact, the net income to the council for parking services -- including enforcement -- amounted to £465,000 for 2002-03. Of this income:

£170,000 was already built into the council's revenue budget as a contribution to the overall funding of council services;

£90,000 was used to fund day-to-day maintenance repairs to the highway network in 2003-04;

£205,000 was used to fund additional planned highway maintenance schemes in 2003-04.

Finally, I invite "Parkers' Watchdog" to meet with me, the borough engineer and parking service management to answer any questions he may have, and hopefully allay his concerns.

COUNCILLOR MIKE CONNOLLY,

Executive member,

environment & transport,

Bury MBC.

The charge is often levelled on this page that NCP wardens are given quotas and, by implication, incentivised to book as many drivers as possible. It is not -- so the claim goes -- in their interest to exercise discretion or leniency. But is the allegation true? Coun Connolly insists it is not. But are there any NCP wardens, or ex-wardens, who could put the record straight, once and for all? If so, I would be delighted to hear from them -- editor.