Why is it acceptable for car-hating City of York Council to feel justified in threatening and implementing exorbitant fines for any transgressions with the use of cars - and at the same time feel justified in ‘stealing’ money for parking from gullible motorists?

Arriving at Piccadilly car park to meet with friends for lunch after a Covid absence, I was very pleased to see that Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) had been installed and that there was a large LED-type screen with all the costs clearly displayed.

It’s £2.80 an hour or 4.666 pence per minute. We were there for two hours, 12 minutes. But when we inserted our car registration to pay, the fee was £8.40 (the fee for a full three hours) instead of the £6.16 it should have been for the time we spent there. Daylight robbery to the tune of £2.24.

If I had been there for two hours, one minute they would have ‘stolen’ 59 minutes worth. As a ‘Which’ Consumers’ Association member I’ll see if they can change the law to prevent this.

Keith Massey, Bishopthorpe