Despite numerous objections, it is Wiltshire Council’s intention to limit parking in the Sheep Street car park to those prepared and able to pay by mobile phone. This proposal is one which the trust believes to be profoundly wrong. Apparently the council was enamoured by similar systems operating in the inner London Boroughs of Westminster and Islington. Any comparison with Wiltshire and its collection of market towns is like chalk and cheese.

The demographics of Devizes are very different from Central London: the percentage of Central London’s population in the 20 to 44 age group is 50 per cent, whilst in Devizes it is 28 per cent. The population of Central London is dominated by what may well be called “the mobile phone generation”, whereas that is far from the case in Devizes. The fact is that there are many older citizens here who either do not have a mobile phone, or who have one for use in an emergency only. They are unlikely to sign up to MPermit and will be denied the right to park in Sheep Street car park. This is under a sheltered housing scheme, next door to Sheep Street Baptist Church and opposite the library. It is to be expected then that many elderly people use the car park each week; these will all be inconvenienced by having to find parking further away.

The fact that 80 per cent of those parking on-street in these London boroughs pay by mobile phone can be attributed to two factors: (a) the price which is as high as £6 per hour, making it highly likely that the motorist will not have sufficient change, and (b) that many of those who park on-street are business people doing business in the area, for whom using a mobile phone is second nature.

The same cannot be said for Devizes where the majority of those parking are local people on a shopping trip or attending some activity or other and many of whom do not use a mobile phone regularly.

The lack of any physical evidence of payment, such as a ticket, is also likely to cause uncertainly and apprehension amongst those unused to the “digital experience”.

This proposal, if proceeded with, is discrimination, largely based on age, and the council has no right to penalise its elderly citizens in this way.

Tony Sedgwick, Traffic advisor to the Trust for Devizes, Newman Road, Devizes.