I hope I can answer Keith Taylor's entirely fair question in this week's 'Post' (May 14). Naturally my Liberal Democrat colleagues and I have no plans to introduce new parking charges in any free street or car park.

However, Mr Taylor will be aware that our town centres need as much support as possible at this time of economic difficulty. To that end, we are proposing to reduce charges for the first hour in the car parks. That will mean shoppers can park on the spot, near local businesses, without paying over the odds and local dog walkers will get a cheap first hour near the beach.

The streets in Bude are really congested so it's in everyone's interests that people coming into town should have somewhere affordable to park without too much searching! It's no surprise then that we have received an avalanche of petition slips in support of this commonsense policy.

I am, of course, happy to answer any questions about this or any other issue — you can email me on [email protected]">[email protected], write to Flexbury Hall, Poughill Road, Bude, Cornwall, EX23 8NX or call me on 07973 951996. I look forward to meeting more residents over the course of the coming campaign.

Liberal Democrat

candidate for the new 'Flexbury and

Poughill' Ward.