WHILE I fully support the main principles behind your Stop The Highway Robbery campaign, I should also like to see you lobbying against the price increase in the residents' parking scheme ('Respark').

The basis of the scheme that we originally signed up to was that the charges simply covered the running costs. This administration's recent doubling of the charges was a cynical, undemocratic, profiteering move.

The £200 a year that a typical city centre household now has to pay simply serves to subsidise the council tax of those living out in the suburbs - who also have the benefit of subsidised public transport.

However, I understand that central government rules stipulate that any profit generated from residents' parking schemes must be used to fund public transport initiatives - in other words, they cannot be used to plug deficits in the council's general budget.

Could one of our council leaders kindly tell us where precisely the profit they are making out of us is going?

The LibDem members clearly got it wrong when they listened to the advice of council officers over parking charges and now seem out of their depth. They should be prepared to admit to and rectify their mistakes or do the decent thing and step aside before they do any more damage to the city.

Andrew Thompson,

Vine Street,

York.

...I have lived in York all my life and have driven a car for forty years. The situation in York is appalling. Charging York people, and tourists, exorbitant rates day and night! The night charges should be abolished.

I live in a little cul-de-sac of 14 flats, with two parking spaces and nowhere else to park. As you can imagine, it's like musical cars. This is terrible for car owners. We always have to look out of our windows to see if a parking space is available and we have to park on double yellow lines if the spaces are taken, at a cost of parking tickets - which all residents have had at some time or other.

There is room for more parking, if only the council would be good enough to help us. Residents have signed a petition hoping for this. There were no parking problems in this small cul-de-sac before the double yellow line went down.

Now as a result of the ludicrous situation we're all in, relatives and friends don't call to see us very much, or only stay a short time, because there is nowhere for them to park. My son and his family (my grandchildren) live 14 miles away so have to visit by car. Other relatives of residents also live a long way from York so have to drive here.

This situation needs addressing by City Of York Council as soon as possible.

Jacqueline Robinson,

Cecelia Place,

Holgate Road,

York.

Updated: 11:30 Tuesday, August 17, 2004