I AM writing about parking charges at The Forge car park in Stockton Heath.

As a long time resident of the area and frequent user of the above car park I was shocked to find a pompous parking enforcement officer attaching a penalty notice to my car.

Apparently only 15 minutes’ parking is now allowed rather than the 60 minutes we had always enjoyed.

Although on reading the sign this is now the case, the council might consider a grace period for motorists and/or more effective advertising of the change.

As it is this merely reinforces the grasping perception of authorities in England and their needs to extract funds from the population at any given opportunity.

I for one will now not frequent Stockton Heath for shopping. It will be the local shopkeepers and other enterprises who will lose out.

In the longer run England itself is fast becoming a place from which I would advise fellow business people to relocate if they can.

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