THE car parking charges that are due to be introduced in the Station Road car park in September are likely to have a serious long term effect on the future of Malmesbury as we know it.

Towns the size of Malmesbury all over the country are having their existence challenged by the relentless onslaught of the big supermarkets.

The problem is that the car park charges will be just one more reason why people should avoid shopping in Malmesbury. After all, the big Tesco in Cirencester stocks almost everything Malmesbury sells from food to clothes, TVs and bicycles with parking that does not involve a long flight of steps.

As shops close then people increasingly will go elsewhere. People will not come here for 50 per cent of their shopping they will go to other centres where they can get everything they need.

There is a further problem. People who work in Malmesbury must be able to park. The proposed £4 per day will be reduced by getting a season ticket but this will still mean charging workers, who are often low paid, hundreds of pounds a year to come to work.

The charges are therefore a tax on Malmesbury employees and represent a further disincentive for local employers.

Our town council should be working with other similar sized towns to resist with all their influence. But they have chosen not to.

In fact they have asked for double yellow lines on Station Road in case anyone should try to get free parking. This will be catastrophic for the Focus on Fitness gym whose members will have nowhere to park

As a community we need to do everything we can to preserve Malmesbury as a viable commercial and shopping area.

Experience in many other similar sized towns shows that once a town goes into decline it will never recover. This must not happen to Malmesbury.

R MacLachlan

Milbourne

Malmesbury