CHRISTMAS regalia has adorned shop windows for several weeks now, and shoppers are wandering the High Street burdened with bags.
Drivers jostle for space in the car parks and traffic jams will be building up in the weeks before Christmas. But this year an extra 1,000 cars will head for the town centre because there is no park and ride in place.
Among the thousands who pass through the town every day this may seem a small number and the £10,000 cost suggests the council tax payers could have been subsidising those cars at the rate of £10 a vehicle.
But it seems a bit careless for North Wiltshire District Council to promote the scheme and then to forget to organise it.
Members had to make a decision on Monday, giving officers just nine working days to sort it out. It was convenient to hand the cash to CCTV but the district council seems to have made a virtue out of a necessity.
Traders want to lure shoppers into town but how many will battle for parking when they can speed to the tarmac acres at Cribbs Causeway and Swindon Outlet Village?
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