Sir, – Today (the first day after the Easter weekend) I visited Northallerton town centre. I took with me plenty of change to pay for car parking.

However, in the Applegarth car park not one of the machines would accept any coins.

There were several other people standing around, all in the same predicament, trying in vain to pay.

Not wanting to risk a £50 penalty I telephoned the council offices and I was told that the machines were full and could not accept any more coins until they had been emptied. The helpful lady took my car number and assured me that if there were any penalty she would verify that I had tried to pay.

May I suggest that this situation is really not good enough.

There were many puzzled people milling about not knowing what to do. One wonders what would have happened if the machines had been emptied while we were shopping. Would there have been a profusion of penalty notices for ticketless cars causing many people to be penalised with a £50 fine?

The introduction of parking charges caused a great deal of controversy from shoppers and retailers at the time. Ultimately we had no choice but to accept the decision. It then beggars belief that there is not an effective scheme to manage it.

(Mrs) M BLUNT Northallerton