The change of heart by Kennet District Council over parking charges in Devizes is a victory for common sense.
When it was first suggested that the fee for parking all day should rise to a minimum of £4 in the town's most under-used car park in Station Road the Gazette expressed surprise and called for a rethink.
Traders, workers and householders agreed with our stance and wrote to show their displeasure at the proposal.
Now the council has decided to throw out the £4 charge and instead to introduce a fee of £2 from next April.
Some will say this rise from £1.50 is still too much but most commuters will probably reluctantly dig a little deeper into their pockets and pay up.
If the £4 charge had gone ahead most would probably have looked for alternative on-street parking and caused misery to people in side streets by parking in front of their homes.
There are still a number of major changes in the pipeline for people trying to park in the town.
Wiltshire County Council has its own plan to make it more difficult for drivers to park all day for free by introducing restrictions on a number of roads where at the moment motorists can park all day for nothing.
It also wants to scrap the disc parking system which it claims is difficult for tourists to understand and make more of the town centre a one hour zone. Before this combined with the planned huge rises in car parking charges seemed a recipe for disaster with drivers being pushed further and further into residential roads.
Now at least the under-used car parks, especially the one at Station Road, may see an increase in users and the council may even get more revenue than if it had pressed ahead with its earlier, unpopular plan.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article