YOUR report about the closure of the Whalley car park (LET, August 6) is most disturbing.

It is stated that it has been leased from Whitbread by Ribble Valley Council for the past 10 years, that the council cannot afford to renew the agreement and that proposals for the funding of a lease renewal by making it a pay-and-display car park have been rejected because "traders bombarded them with letters objecting to the proposed . . . scheme."

These people, it is implied, want to go on parking all day for free, to the disadvantage of their customers, visitors to the doctors and dentists etc, who can't find a parking space.

It is quite unacceptable for a small, well-organised and loud group to dictate the present outcome.

The thousands whose voices are unheard are quite prepared, if that is the only solution, to pay a reasonable amount for a reasonable stay.

The pay-and-display scheme must be re-examined.

G RAYNER, Whinney Lane, Langho.

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