I've been wanting to rant about this for ages. As someone who has lived most of my life in Stratford, I've watched the greed of Stratford Council Grow. We now have taxes rising far above inflation, and what do the council reward our hard earned cash with? That's right, they buy us parking meters!

I remember a time when you could park for free everywhere, then gradually 'maximum parking time' signs started appearing everywhere, making people who work in Stratford have to park further and further out of town. Now you can't park anywhere all day for free, and you have to pay extortionate sums if you do decide to park in town.

Meanwhile, Stratford council have given themselves their own free car park! Frankly I think this is a disgrace!

Oh lord tell me about it. What is worse is that all these parking measures, were introduced under the pretense of cutting traffic, which it has failed utterly to do. All it means is people no longer stop long enough to use any of the shops in Stratford.

Stratford Council squeezes so much money out of us, and we never see anything in return!

You can count me in on that as well, I'm definately no fan of the parking meters.

Last time I was in Stratford, I couldn't believe the amount of parking Nazis (traffic wardens) I saw walking around. Where did they all come from? Did they arrive at the same time as the parking meters?

it is the same, if not worse in warwick...
we had a vote on a new town centre traffic plan and a report on how succesful the last 5 year plan was.
which is great, except nobody but the planners think is was a success, and we voted by a huge majority against the new plan, and they are doing it anyway. warwickshire county council, as well as the district councils seem to have a rabid anti car policy, and are trying to make it as difficult as possible to drive anywhere. laudible idea if a viable alternative existed, but until it does, all the people who used to drive into town to buy nice things from my shop and visit the castle and such just aren't bothering any more. next step in warwick is turning ALL long stay car parks in the town centre into short stays.(except the council employees car parks...) where do residents and workers park then?
#rant mode off# sorry chaps

Sounds typical of this country these days, nanny state and all that. I'm probably getting ahead of myself now, but places like this forum are ideal places for people to vent their anger on mass. Councils will find it hard to ignore.