Sirs,
On Friday I wanted to park my car in the car park behind Waitrose and pay for the ticket using cash as I have done for the last 45 years.
None of the ticket machines were in operation. Yes I do have an (old) mobile phone, but I left it at home.
So I returned home, to get my phone and rang Wiltshire Council to report the fact that all ticket machines behind Waitrose were not in operation, they suggested using my mobile phone to get a permit to park.
I’m not sure whether my phone would run such an app. So I asked the person at the end of the line. “What would happen if I parked my car without a ticket because I was not able to get a ticket even though I fully intended to do so?”
A very cold response was given to me “If the traffic warden saw you had parked without the permit you would get a ticket, find somewhere else to park that does not require a permit”.
So if a visitor who hasn’t a mobile phone or an elderly person who does not want to use the mobile, or their phone isn’t a ‘smartphone’.”
“Tough”.
So when I asked about repairs on the ticket machines, the answer was: “I do not know!
The operator explained that all cash machines had been broken into in Marlborough and elsewhere across Wiltshire.
I think this a Stealth Tax, they probably want to get rid of them. If they do, I hope all the mobile phone networks can be located across Wiltshire by the punters.
Yours,
Name and address supplied
Marlborough Resident
General Election looming – candidates being announced…..
