ALTHOUGH it was at the bottom of the letters page recently, thank goodness someone has at last drawn attention to Bromsgrove District Council's greed, disregard of the publics 'pocket' and refusal to care about the people living within walking distance of the town's shopping centre.

The letter I refer to bought to our attention the council's continued refusal to let ASDA buy the car park (which belongs to the council) so that they can offer free parking to customers, as do the other supermarkets in Bromsgrove and Rubery. And because of this many now choose to shop elsewhere, which also loses valuable income to the town centre shops which they would often visit whilst shopping at the supermarket.

To add insult to injury you now have to put in your vehicle registration, which makes it impossible to pass on any spare parking time to someone else if you still have time on your parking ticket that you have not used.

I am sorry, but as far as I am concerned this is almost fraudulent! If I have paid for a space for two hours and I only use one hour, that space has already been paid for and I can give my ticket to who I like. The council is not losing money but to sell that space again to someone because of this registration scam is taking money twice for the same space and is just ripping the public off!

They do not care that because of their greed their multi-storey car park adjacent to ASDA - that cost a fortune, stands empty most of the day, and the top floor (which could be used for the supermarket's staff to park, no, they also cannot have free parking) is a play ground, bicycle, skateboard, and trolley dash for kids. Which in itself is an accident waiting to happen.

They do not care that residents who live within walking distance of the centre are plagued by people who do not wish to pay to park, and will sometimes cause obstruction and nuisance making it impossible for relatives or tradesmen to get anywhere near your house themselves.

Shopping trolleys are wheeled to these cars, unloaded and dumped in the hedge or on the pavement, and although the supermarket do employ a pick-up service, it may be the next day that they are collected and by then they may have been rammed into your car by uncaring passers-by.

The council has been told continually of these problems and its answer is always the same, 'tough', that's only to be expected if you live around the centre.

The residents of Bromsgrove elect these people. Surely we should put pressure on to make them listen?

Jenny Peters

Bromsgrove