Car-free Sundays will not help city's shops

IT'S the New Year but the old baggage.

Our mayor wishes to make Sunday a car-free zone, just as other cities/towns do. It will encourage people to come into the centre of Bristol and encourage them to spend at Cabot Circus and Broadmead.

Is he serious? Does he think by making it car free will help to improve business in Bristol and its economy?

He is so sadly mistaken.

I find Cabot Circus to be a rather expensive wind tunnel and have visited it once and have never returned and have no intention to return.

I find shopping in Fishponds, Cribbs Causeway and Emersons Green more beneficial.

I can load my car boot to the gunnels with shopping without breaking a sweat and know that my shopping won't get wet whilst waiting for a bus and that my loaf of bread won't get squashed whilst climbing aboard a crowded bus or the handles of the bag breaks spewing my shopping onto unhygienic floors.

I find the cinema at St Phillips Causeway and Longwell Green much easier to use and if I want a drink I would never think of going into 'town'. It is great being so close to the countryside in South Gloucestershire with many more suitable watering holes. Shame because at one time I automatically would choose Bristol City Centre above anywhere else.

If Bristol City Council and the mayor want us to spend our non Bristol pounds in Bristol City Centre, make it worth our while.

Invite us in, not make us feel like lepers. Drivers are people who can contribute more than cyclists to the local economy. Give us a place to park that does not rip us off so that we may visit any place in walking distance of my car so that I can enjoy what the 'town' has to offer.

If the mayor believes a congestion charge is viable he is again misguided. So far it would seem this mayor who was once a businessman has got the Bristol City Council hit the motorist bug.

At your peril George. So it would seem mayor George Ferguson is a Lib Dem.

Martyn Hancock

Fishponds

IT is a disgrace that the people of Bristol will now have to pay to park in Ashton Court, Blaise and Oldbury Court. These areas are supposed to be for the use of all Bristolians, not just those that can aford to pay the parking charges.

I visited Ashton Court at Christmas and the car park was half empty as I sure that most people did what I did and drove back out again!

I am sure, as I voted for George Ferguson, that this is not his decision but that of the hare brains that were in power before as I'm sure the decision process would have taken several months.

But does Mr Ferguson seriously believe that these meters will stay undamaged in these remote areas!

Please get this stopped. Mr ferguson stopped parking charges on a Sunday, why allow this madness to go ahead?

Under the freedom of information act can I please have these details?

What are the costs involved i. e. -

Cost of installation?

Cost to check the tickets?

Cost to empty the money (this is assuming that there is still money left in them after they have been broken into!)?

Cost of repair after they have been broken into?

What will the income be allowing for the reduction in the number of people using these facility's (as I'm sure this was factored in) .

Roy Adair