DURING the past two weeks, I have been to an evening performance at the Grand Opera House and I have parked in the Castle car park.

Being a resident of York and with the appropriate badge visible in my windscreen, I tried to obtain my reduced rate parking ticket. On both occasions and on different machines I failed; either the machine was empty or broken, no indication of either was given.

After trying other machines and still being unable to obtain the necessary ticket, I had to pay the extra charge as a non-resident for the evening.

Is this a deliberate ploy of the council to ensure that the machines are not full so that they gain the extra revenue, or do they think that the machines in York's most popular car park only want filling on limited occasions?

I hope that they can do better when the charges go down.

AP Cox,

Heath Close,

Holgate, York.

Updated: 09:19 Tuesday, November 02, 2004