There is no doubt that illegal and obstructive parking is a menace and should be addressed vigorously. The scale of fines seemed a bit high, but if you park correctly this should not concern you.

However, imagine my horror when I came to the paragraph "The county council will appoint a contractor to patrol the county's streets and car parks, to carry out the work previously done by police traffic wardens."

Why? If, as is suggested later in the article, the scheme will be self financing, (even a surplus is suggested) can this crackdown not be administered by the police? Instead of which we are to be subjected to yet another layer of administration which will amount to a private army whose only purpose will be to raise revenue.

As I understand it, the community police officers (Blunkett's Bobbies) are not allowed to issue parking fines. Why not? Surely, even with their minimal training they are better qualified for such a task than someone who is employed to do a job which sounds to me to be on a par with the notorious clampers.

If the revenue from this scheme is to be plentiful as suggested then it should allow for the employment of even more CPOs who can carry out their duties as our guardians at the same time.

John Wilman
Fern Bank
Chapel-en-le-Frith