Sir, – In the late 1970s, Northallerton was a lively and thriving business community and retail premises were not easy to come by.

After several months, a shop became vacant in the High Street. The rent was reasonable and the rates affordable and so I opened Sport and Leisure and ran the shop from those premises for several years, until moving into larger premises at the opposite end of the High Street.

During all that time, business was pretty good; visitors liked the town because of the variety of quality shops, ease of free parking and a good selection of cafés, restaurants and public houses.

Could that happen so easily today? Last week, I drove through the town and counted more than 45 empty parking places in the High Street – about the same number as the empty premises for sale or rent in the town. At this time,there was no tumbleweed blowing down the street, but you will not have too long to wait. High rents, extortionate rates and stupid parking schemes are already having their effect.

I made a point of visiting several retail establishments and asked the same question – “Has the new parking scheme had any effect on your business?”

The replies were consistent and blunt to the point of rudeness. “A total disaster”.

“Shockingly short-sighted stupidity” – and they were the polite ones.

Let us say you are 75, a bit slow on the old pegs and have to collect your prescription from Boots?.So, hobble down to the nearest black box and decide on your method of attack – will it take less than 30 minutes? If so, it’s free.

But, loophole here, what if there is a queue at Boots?

Ah, there the County Hall hobbits have got you … a uniformed gentleman is skulking in a doorway waiting to pounce and give you a generous parking fine for missing your deadline of 30 minutes.

Of course, you can avoid this by paying immediately for one or two hours, that pays for the traffic warden, see? And he comes from Scarborough every day – and we pay his travel expenses.

Reputable long-standing businesses in this town – Bettys, Barkers, Lewis & Cooper, Maxwell’s,to name a few – have complained repeatedly about this ridiculous parking scheme and yet little or no attention is paid to their issues.

Perhaps North Yorkshire county councillors should do a bit of intelligence-gathering?

JOHN RICHARDS Romanby, Northallerton.