IT seems Councillor Steve Galloway is following in the footsteps of Margaret Thatcher by echoing her attempts at "not courting cheap popularity". Some may say he is courting expensive unpopularity.

These draconian parking measures seem to have been introduced at a stroke and yet they cannot even begin to be reversed until after September 28.

By then, the York summer will be over and many a business will have sold out to make way for a new bank or building society.

It's not just tourists who are suffering. If you are a worker in York on an average of £5 an hour - and you now have to pay an average of £1.50 to park your car - that takes you down to £3.50 an hour. As well as the wage cut you also have to pay another £100 a year in council tax.

Thanks to the Lib Dems, you are now £62 a week worse off.

Don't you wish you had bothered to vote at the last election?

Eddie Vee,

Official Monster Raving Loony Party,

Wenham Road, York.

...LIKE Allan Charlesworth (Letters, July 30), I took up the evening parking charges issue with the council with my ward councillors and received a "whitewash" reply. I suggested that, if there have to be the charges, they should be much lower than in the daytime (as they are in most other cities) and that the Park and Ride should be extended to normal last bus times, about 11.30pm.

S P Roberts will be aware that in Oxford the P&R services do run sensibly until late evening, so residents and visitors do not need to take their cars into the city centre.

As Mr Charlesworth says, the council has clearly exceeded its powers. The evening charges do nothing for congestion reduction (if you can't get home after 9pm you will bring the car anyway) and are certainly not "reasonable". So the next stage must surely be either a judicial review or the ombudsman?

Graham Collett,

Wilstrop Farm Road,

Copmanthorpe, York.

...INSTEAD of City of York Council charging people to park in the city in the evening they should start to impose the £50 fines supposed to be given to people dropping litter.

Not only would they raise extra cash, the city would be a lot more attractive to visitors.

On a Friday and Saturday night, when the pubs and clubs shut, the litter from various takeaways left on the pavements and roadside is a disgrace.

Why doesn't somebody fine these people?

I am sure the council would raise enough revenue to scrap the evening charges.

K Appleyard,

Campbell Avenue,

Acomb,

York.

Updated: 10:20 Tuesday, August 03, 2004