CONCERNING the front-page story about parking fines (The Press, March 30), it would be helpful if the British and more especially the English would stop thinking of the council, the Government and the tax office as greedy profiteers trying to take money from the public and line their own pockets.

A public body is not a person. Private companies are there to increase their own income; state concerns are there to benefit the public. We elect public; we do not elect private.

Sometimes there is public fraud but there is more often private fraud.

Over again I read “You don’t want to give your money to the taxman, do you?”. If we do not pay taxes we will get deteriorating public services – our country, our families and our children will all then suffer from our miserliness.

Philip Johnson, Greencliffe Drive, Clifton, York.