Parking charges 'the final nail in the coffin' for trader (From Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard)

Parking charges 'the final nail in the coffin' for trader

ONE of Cirencester's best known traders claims she has been forced out of business by Cotswold District Council's 'extortionate' parking charges.

Lizzi Pearson, who runs Willow in Castle Street, says the tariffs, which have more than doubled in most cases, were "the final nail in the coffin" for the shop she has run for 12 years.

She hit out at the council's ruling Tories, who introduced the charges without consultation, and still refuse to accept they're affecting trade in the town.

In a letter to the Standard, mother-of-three Mrs Pearson said: "We saw the first downturn in trade when Tesco and Waitrose opened out of town.

Then September 11 affected the amount of American visitors and thus our summer trading.

"There is absolutely no doubt that the car parking charges were the final nail in the coffin. People just stopped coming and, compared with the previous year's trading, we saw a decrease in sales of 20 percent."

The charges, which came into force on April 1 last year, have been blamed for killing trade in Tetbury as well.

However, although strong campaigning eventually forced the Tories to back down and reduce the charges there, they refuse to do the same in Cirencester.

The policy has also been blamed for causing congestion in residential streets and Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, who was the Tory MP for the district until the general election was called, also criticised the scheme and said the council should be held "accountable" for its decision.

Mrs Pearson, who once said she would rather go to prison than pay the new tariffs, is now appealing to the Tories to prevent other shops from going out of business.

She urged the CDC ruling group: "Look around you, talk to your constituents and visit other small market towns and start inhabiting the real world.

"When are you going to come to your senses and support your people instead of making snide remarks about their abilities to run businesses?"