PAYING for parking does not entirely deter me from shopping in Helston as 90 per cent of my furniture originated from Williams in Helston, but paying for parking does become a consideration if only a few small items are required.

I was under the impression that when Cornwall transmogrified into a unitary authority, the proposal for parking charges was to unify them throughout Cornwall.

Obviously this would take into consideration the difference between say the city of Truro and other smaller towns. Why though, may I ask, does St Just have a large free council maintained car park when it appears to have the quantity of shops on a scale similar to Helston and yet one has to pay for parking in Helston?

This also means that library users are disadvantaged in Helston. The fact that the use of a library is paid for in one’s council tax at equal measures, whether one has free parking near their nearest library or not, seems a little unfair.

If Cornwall Council is not going to charge for parking at St Just, how do they justify recently increasing the parking charges for a town the size of Helston? With free parking on offer, it certainly encouraged me to spend more time in St Just round the shops as I was not clock watching for the car park.

Regarding the recently introduced scheme whereby shoppers in Helston can get their car park fee refunded by the participating shops if they prove purchase of car park fee, how will visitors to the car parks know that this scheme applies?

By the time the find out in the shops, it will be too late to produce evidence of parking tickets. If they propose erecting signs to inform shoppers in the car parks, what happens about the “clean sweep policy?”

In addition, bearing in mind the ticket has to be left on display in the car, the suggestion made was that people could take a photo of the ticket on their mobile phone as proof of purchase. What is to stop someone getting off a bus and taking a photo of someone else’s car park ticket?

Gill Martin, Gibbons Fields, Mullion