LETTER: Car parking fines for supporting Nelson shops

Although these shops need complimenting for delivering such outstanding products, this is not the reason I am writing to you.

On Saturday, I came shopping early and parked on New Brown Street car park as usual, went and got everything I needed and returned to my car only to find I had been booked for not parking with a blue indicator disc on full view. The car park was fairly empty as usual, so for my forgetting to display my disc I was penalised £25.

I am obviously very annoyed with this as it is the second time this year it has happened to me, so just for the fact I am trying to support local shops instead of going to a faceless supermarket - where you can park for free and never get penalised - it has cost me an extra £50.

With Nelson still on the decline, even though Pendle Council is trying to improve the centre, for me to be penalised for trying to use the shops in the centre is ludicrous.

To try to encourage people in, why isn’t the blue disc scheme scrapped altogether and free parking introduced and advertised as so to encourage more people to come, not less?

New people coming are discouraged by the fact they firstly have to find a shop that has blue discs and also by the fact that if they leave their vehicle to do this, there is a chance they would get penalised!

I know there are outlying car park areas that do not require a blue disc and there is also the multi-storey car park, but personally I do not like using this facility as it is dark, depressing and a little scary.

Please could the powers that be consider stopping the blue disc scheme, providing free parking to all for Nelson Centre for the town’s “rebirth” later this year.

“ANNOYED”

Name and address

supplied