SIR — The new, more zealous on-street parking controls in Minehead will put a premium on parking spaces, particularly in The Parade and upper Avenue.

Many motorists who now park on yellow lines just to pop in to a shop might find that this does not pay from now on.

And if the government's retail guru Mary Portas is to be believed, parking and retail success go hand in hand.  

And here MInehead is fortunate. It can create 25 per cent more parking spaces right in its retail heart, overnight. This would benefit retailers and motorists alike and would have no down side.

The simple solution is to move all taxi ranks to where they belong - at the station, where they can be contacted by mobile phones, and put the bus stop outside the old hospital perhaps.

In the days before the ubiquity of mobile phones, there may have been an argument for town centre taxi ranks, but now we can dispense with them to our every advantage.

To use the vernacular, it's a non-brainer!

Carl Saunders-Singer,

Ballfield Road,

Minehead.