Shoot yourself in foot (From The Oxford Times)

Shoot yourself in foot

7:40am Thursday 9th September 2010 in

• Skip social links
• Print
• Email
• Comments(0)

Sir – I refer to your lead article (September 2) entitled Drivers desert the city. I find it very amusing that Oxford City Council are proposing to tempt motorists back into the city centre by offering “inducements and promotions” due to the shortfall in parking revenues by £700,000 this year.

For as long as I can remember, Oxford City Council have waged war on anyone entering the city centre on anything but a bus or a bicycle. My congratulations to the council —their policy has worked; car parks are empty and cars are staying away from Oxford.

However didn’t anyone on the council realise that if these policies worked it would have a direct impact on reducing their revenue streams.

It would appear that so long as parking revenues keep on increasing year on year, the council are very happy to rake in the money, but when revenues start to fall it’s a case of “come back motorists ,all is forgiven”. Whatever happened to CO2 emissions, green issues and the environment, or is it that long-standing policies pale into insignificance when they are no longer financially attractive.

Isn’t this a classic case of “Shooting yourself in the foot”.

Paul Wooldridge, Boars Hill