Yes, in their greed and car hating temper tantrum they forgot something.

The internet.

You will seldom find any of our cars parked in any shopping area, the only place we regularly go is either Morrisons or Lidl.

As for the rest of the shopping that can usually be done (cheaper too) from the comfort and warmth of your home and let the man with the van deliver it.

No fuel Tax, no parking Tax, no parking fine Tax, no speeding Tax, no damage to car so no VAT Tax on the repairs, no driving 5 miles through bottlenecked one way routes to reach the car parks for the stores you drove past half an hour ago. No rubbing shoulders with n'er do wells, no muggers no pickpockets, no screaming brats in their monstrous 4x4 style buggies with disc brakes for goodness sake, no shop assistants too busy chopsing to bother with customers, no dog poop...bliss.

Too late, they made town centres no go areas for the very people they should have encouraged, the financially solvent, and they have reaped the rewards.

Its had an unexpected victim too, we don't really bother with out of town stores either, unless we are buying decent clothes etc when maybe a trip to somewhere like Bicester Shopping Village is made...only place i've been in recent years where owners of convertibles can leave them with the roof down...no louts, no low lifes, the shopping area and the car park is patrolled constantly by some efficient looking security and n'er do wells do not appear welcome.

Coo i enjoyed that rant and make no apologies, thanks Ethan, the idiots that allowed the Stazi to ruin our town centres only have themselves to blame, we won't be going back and neither will our money or Taxes.

Edited by gordonbennet on 15/12/2011 at 13:28

<<I have to confess that on the very rare occasion I do go into town by car. >>>

Like EE I hardly ever go to town centres. Living as I do in the wilds of Anglesey it is far easier to fire up the computer and visit that large on-line retailer that shares it`s name with a well known and great South American river. My own prediction of the future is that what are now small shops will revert to living accommodation,this will help to reduce the housing shortage and remove the eyesore scenario we have now of the march of charity shops and even worse,boarded up shops. The only items I will not buy on -line are clothes,shoes and food.Come to think of it I even get service items for my car on-line and delivered to my door. The nearest Toyota dealer (SWMBO`s car) is about 30 miles away,with the nearest Fiat (mine) being even f***her.

And people wonder why town centres are dying? They must be morons.

Happily our town council in Carmarthen have decided not to put meters on one of the town streets, and there is plenty of cheap parking off street, as well as some overpriced parking at the new shopping centre, but we leave that for those who don't know. when I lived near London, i once got a ticket off station road in Edgware, and paid up, but wrote to Barnet council and told them that if they persisted in making parking so complicated i would not shop there anymore. I cannot be alone as edgware looks just like those photos in the DM.

And guess what? 14 years on do not pay for parking so don't shop where it isn't convenient.

I also use that south american river shopping site, as well as many others.

As someone else said it's easier than listening to some teenage punk who doesn't want to work talk about their previous evenings "entertainment" and then hear them say whorrayawant.

yes i go to tescos/morrisons/asda/lidl/aldi/our local veg wholesaler but all have free parking.

Wake up Mz Portass.