SIR — Re. winter parking charges, along with many others we find it difficult to understand how the local authority can justify the current out of season exorbitant parking fee of £1.50 per hour applying to some areas of Minehead. Do we have practical parking control or an easy way to raise revenue at the expense of largely local residents?

While we accept that there must be controlled parking in the main part of town to avoid all-day or long-term parking by some, how can this apply to local residents who only require short-term parking in places such as the esplanade area in front of Butlins? At this time of year, especially when Butlins is closed, these are very largely local people who only want to enjoy their local amenities or take the dog for a short walk on the beach.

We often use this area and have in the past seen a parking control vehicles parked on the lower road without any lights on at five in the afternoon when it's dark - waiting, presumably, for someone to park for a matter of minutes to tot up the 'tickets issued' figures. At this time of day there are usually only very few, if any, other vehicles around, probably because people cannot or will not pay the exorbitant fees.

As there are now a large number of retail premises empty in the town with more seemingly closing all the time, can the authorities consider adopting a system we recently saw operating in Selsey, West Sussex? Under this system, the driver enters the vehicle registration number into the meter and is issued with a free permit to park that vehicle short term. Here it was two hours but this could be reduced to one hour and still be very practical. The departure time is clearly shown and any overstay is subject to a penalty. A longer parking requirement is paid for in the usual way.

Even if this was adopted only for the closed season it would be a great step forward and perhaps encourage more local residents to enjoy the town rather than shop elsewhere or using edge-of-town shopping where parking is free.

We know of at least one local trader whose business has been severely affected by the ambitions of hovering parking attendants preventing potential customers from stopping even for a few minutes. There are enough empty premises in the town already without putting pressure on others by driving away potential customers due to over ambitious parking controls.

While we are about it, do we have to spend the whole winter looking at that closed monstrosity of a Walls ice-cream unit located in The Avenue? Surely it could be removed and brought back again when the season resumes. How it ever got a permit to be there in the first place needs some explanation.

John and Gill Styles,

Lower Park,

Minehead.