Unfortunately we live in an age where people often do not engage their brains when leaving the house and drive ridiculously short distances (as discussed elsewhere).

People complain about parking charges, but nobody figures out how much it costs them to drive the extra distance to Bell Green. If we reckon 1.7 miles @ 30 mpg, with petrol costing ?1.20/litre then that is 62p each way (not allowing for running costs), ?1.24 total. So ?1 for 2 hours parking is actually a bargain, but try to convince a car owner of that Until we can change that mindset, we need to cater for the car owner if we are to encourage local shoppers, while at the same time making sure that available parking is not monopolised by the commuter.

My earlier suggestion was for four or five spaces outside the post office to remove the 'need' for people to park on the pavement at that end of Dartmouth Rd where the main offenders seem to be delivery drivers. We have established that car drivers are lazy, so we need to provide parking close to their destination. Maybe we should simply provide drive through shopping