COUNCILLOR Alan Melton is well and truly back in the mix at Fenland District Council. He is making noises; and possibly trying to settle a few old scores. Alan s query, about the £25,000 consultation to study the feasibility of paid parking in Fenland s

COUNCILLOR Alan Melton is well and truly back in the mix at Fenland District Council. He is making noises; and possibly trying to settle a few old scores.

Alan's query, about the £25,000 consultation to study the feasibility of 'paid parking' in Fenland's market towns, received a strange reply to say the least. The leader, Councillor Geoff Harper, said "the report was only in draft form, and it will remain a draft because things have altered". Come on Geoff , why have FDC forked out £25,000 for a report commissioned in 2002, and yet four years on you want to keep it as a preliminary version of that report? Tell the people what the report said - what have you got to hide?

I have to query Alan's reported figures on paid parking, he claims at £1 per day parking would raise enough money to make the Fenland council tax payers £11 per year better off.

What about the people who park their cars five days per week 50 weeks per year as they commute to work? They would be £250 per year worse off. The housewife who uses the car to shop in town twice a week would also be out of pocket. FDC would have to employ at least 16 wardens to enforce lawful parking. The cost in wages alone would take at least two-thirds of Councillor Melton's projected £324,000 yearly income.

The threatened closure of Hinchingbrooke Hospital has aroused Fenland District Council, so much so they passed an emergency motion rejecting that hospital closure. Cllr Harper agreed that a deputation should go to Parliament about the issue. That is a noble gesture, but where were FDC when the PCT dismantled the wards at Doddington?

Cllr Cotterell is concerned about Wisbech people having to travel along the A47 to Peterborough if King's Lynn lost their hospital. Is he not aware that for many years people living within a six miles radius of Doddington Hospital have been travelling to Cambridge's Addenbrooke's Hospital on the notorious A14, or the A141 via the Wall of Death at Clewes Corner to Hinchingbrooke Hospital and the dreaded Forty Foot Bank to Peterborough Hospitals?

R A WENN

The Haven

Acre Fen

Chatteris