TWO Warminster traders say the introduction of car parking charges has backfired and are calling for them to be scrapped.
Mark Brassington and Jacqui Cawston, who run Jacqueline's Restaurant and Tea Rooms, wrote to West Wiltshire District Council and Warminster Town Council in 2000 to warn against imposing the charges.
They say that since the system was implemented in April 2002, Warminster, a 'once thriving town' now has around 18 empty shops as potential customers go elsewhere.
In a letter to the Wiltshire Times they wrote: "How much money is being lost in west Wiltshire due to empty premises not paying business rates and employing local people who are now, if they haven't found alternative jobs, claiming housing benefit and council tax rebates?
"Without a thriving town there won't be any parking charges to collect, yet without parking charges there is hope of a thriving town."
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