ALL councillors are elected to serve their communities; their role should be to support and help to make possible a better quality of life.

Sadly the controlling group at West Wiltshire District Council appears to have lost the plot; they are now penalising the people of west Wiltshire by introducing a stealth tax, car parking charges.

The problem in Melksham is that the introduction of car parking charges will hammer small businesses that are mainly family-run and employ a small number of people.

The larger chains have their own car parks and everyone will spend more time at their sites. The smaller shops will lose out and eventually go out of business because of a lack of support.

May I make a suggestion to even the odds in favour of the smaller shops, could the leading group within west Wiltshire now introduce another stealth tax. The larger shops pay an extra tax on the number of car parking spaces they provide.

I do not think there is much chance of this happening but one thing will be happening in future years, the cost of car parking will increase and this will further penalise the people of west Wiltshire.

V OAKMAN

Labour Councillor

Melksham Town and West Wiltshire District Councillor