THE plan to introduce permit parking in the Poulton area of Morecambe is nothing less than a thinly disguised, local tax on poorer motorists.

I live on North Street, where residents park, but at 8am the majority leave in their cars for work and their spaces are filled by people with business in the area.

Come 5pm the business people leave and residents return and the result is that there is maximum use of the limited space available.

Contrast this to areas where permit parking operates, for example Lancaster Road between York Bridge and the Spar shop or Central Drive opposite the library. Both have empty spaces all day, putting extra pressure on other places and resulting in inefficient use of space.

I therefore call on the people of Poulton to reject this plan by saying no' on questionnaires they receive from Lancaster City Council. Remember the £25 fee (tax) you pay only permits parking in Poulton - and that a permit is also someone else's parking fine.

While I agree that finding somewhere to park is sometimes a bind, we have never had to pay for it. If the scheme is implemented we will still have trouble parking but will also be paying because, as the leaflet points out, a permit does not guarantee a space.

This is also a political move to get the poor people, not the rich or powerful, out of their cars and on to inadequate public transport.

Finally, the streets of Poulton do not belong to this Labour-led council or the jobsworths it employs they belong to you.

This scheme, if bulldozed through, will only generate funds to pay for more petty bureaucrats employed only to think up plans to screw more money legally or otherwise out of the citizens.

P Shackleton, Morecambe.