I put all this into a report and gave a talk to the Chamber of Commerce who were very interested. They took it to the chief executive of TVBC where it was thoughtfully considered but the view there, at that time, was that government policy was so set against any form of promotion of use of the motor car that there was little prospect of proceeding with anything like this.

Outside the Chamber of Commerce, the report met with a very mixed reception and I began to feel that this was one of the heaviest lead balloons I had ever tried to fly.

However, the report served as the baseline for a working party I set up within the Romsey and District Society which looked exclusively at the parking situation in the town. We concluded that of the predicted 260 spaces shortfall, half of them had been caused by the borough and county councils. For example, 30 spaces were last lost when the new Waitrose was developed and 40 spaces will be lost when the library is developed.

We meet from time to time with TVBC and, at the last meeting in June this year, they promised to carry out a major review of the parking situation and publish a report in December. So it wasn't all a waste of time.

Geoff Morris