WHAT exactly does park and ride do for the people of Salisbury?

The people that should matter the most seem to matter the least to the councillors hell bent on forcing this project on us no matter how much of our money it costs or how much it is doomed tofailure and turning Salisbury into a commercial ghost town.

Not withstanding the six figure sum paid to J Mowlem for cancelling the Maltings multi story, the park and ride has and always will cost taxpayers a small fortune.

£350million was recently turned down to develop the Southampton Road area (it’ll never be offered again) in the hope that retailers will flock to open their stores in the town, and how do they propose to attract shoppers to these stores?

By shutting a principal car park and putting parking fees up? What are they thinking of ? This is 2010, the age of the motorcar. I and thousands like me will never be forced to drive out of town to use the park and ride we’ll just keep going to Southampton or Andover where motorists are welcome.

Simon Sherbington’s recent letter to the Journal stated that banning traffic from Cambridge city works well and should work well in Salisbury, maybe it does, but Salisbury doesn’t bear any resemblance to Cambridge regarding the amount of private residents living within the park and ride radius, and what might work well in Cambridge doesn’t necessarily have to work in Salisbury.

What was needed was good car parks fed from the ring road, not accessed through the city centre, but of course this all seems academic now doesn’t it?

Tourism does bring income to Salisbury, but it is questionable whether they bring more income than the residents of Salisbury who come all year round to spend in the shops but seem to be discouraged by lack of cheap parking spaces.

If the Maltings car park is shut, Sainsbury’s and Tesco will become unviable and inevitably close.

If councillor Tonge and his cronies are allowed to continue with this costly social project that discourages local motorists, would the last trader leaving Salisbury please turn out the lights.

ROSS CASSIDY
Salisbury

REDUCING city centre parking will drive shoppers out of Salisbury to the benefit of more shopper friendly towns.

I agree that pedestrian areas in the city are desirable but it is essential to have a balance of good secure parking facilities as close to the centre as possible as well as keeping unnecessary traffic out of the city centre itself.

The sensible answer is to build a three-storey multi story car park on the central car park site. This is ideal because it is surrounded by tall buildings so cannot be an eyesore.

It would be accessible from Churchill Way so there would be no need for parking traffic to enter the city centre and the shoppers will be close the shops.

The car park would be easy to make secure and Salisbury could start to thrive again.

Can you imagine a park and ride bus, even half full? There would be no room for shopping, pushchairs and trolleys!

If we follow Simon Sherbington’s advice, people will shop elsewhere, more shops will close and Salisbury will die.

VIC GOWER
Salisbury

ONE has to wonder what cretin decided to put a park and ride at the end of the already deeply-congested main Southampton Road and then add traffic lights.

Now we have a fifth white elephant that will never ever pay for itself and is another burden on the taxpayer.

Also, now we have the added joy of having to queue from at least Harnham Bridge roundabout to get to Tesco, B&Q or Southampton.

When will you people listen to the people who voted for you?

Think before you waste any more of our money and make our lives so stressful.

Perhaps you could think about this letter before messing with Elizabeth Gardens.

Lord preserve us from certain people’s ‘VISIONS’.

HAZEL PEARCE
Address withheld