THE Echo and Bournemouth Council have a bit of history when it comes to town centre car parking charges.

It all started a few years ago with our Pay And Dismay campaign when we poured vitriol on the hefty increases being proposed.

Over the years, we’ve thrown retaliatory punches at the news that workers and visitors would have to fork out more for the car parks and we threw the odd uppercut as the number of free on-street spaces shrunk.

In February, we reported that NCP – king of the parking charges – were reducing their charges and applauded their move.

At the same time, we doffed our cap at the benevolence of Bournemouth Council who would be pegging their own parking charges.

Four months on and not only do we have considerably fewer free car parking spaces on the streets of the town, but they’re also going to be considerably more expensive to use.

I’m sure we can all sympathise with Gerry Bolland’s assertion that the money generated is to be ploughed back into the council coffers to keep council taxes down.

That will be a small crumb of comfort to the traders trying to attract residents from outside the area... and no loss of sleep for Castlepoint and its free parking.

I’ll say it again. It is time for everyone with a stake in the town to sit down and work on a plan that will give shoppers a good reason to park their cars and their feet here.