ABOUT a year ago, I was looking at Northallerton on Street View and a comment popped up describing Northallerton as a vibrant market town.

I’ve just had another look on Street View and although I cannot find the comment again, the date on the images of the High Street is March 2009. So perhaps this was an out of date statement rather than a brazen lie.

Since 2009, Northallerton High Street is not suffering as badly as some places but sometimes it does seem to be kind of quiet.

The effect of free parking in smaller towns has recently, probably inadvertently, been quantified. In Cardigan in Wales, someone smashed all the parking meters, and while they were broken and parking was free, turnover at small retailers on the high street went up by as much as 30 per cent and profits at some went up by as much as 50 per cent.

I appreciate that Hambleton District Council has money tied up in the car parks and in the present economic climate wants a return on its investment. Also, the money generated by car parking fees is very useful to it.

I would rather the council does not sell them and let a private company fix the parking fees much higher.

Hambleton District Council was, as far as I remember, comparatively late in introducing car park charges.

However, it could proactively take an alternative approach and instead of using fees from parking to fund economic development, it could instead regard free parking as part of its economic development strategy.

If anyone agrees that free parking will have economic benefits, and those benefits are worth the council forgoing the parking revenue, they could ask their councillor to implement free parking in Hambleton. It might work, it might not work, but could I suggest that the council gives it at least a 12-month trial?

Alan McKee, Brompton, Northallerton.