The news that we have made an extra £122,000 this year from parking is being spun out to mask the horrendous effect the new parking scheme has had on Scarborough's economy.

If we take the spin off and examine the substance we see a very different picture.

The ticket sales from car parks in the borough as a whole have gone up but not in the town of Scarborough – our ticket sales are way down.

Whitby and Filey have seen a tremendous increase in the use of their car parks and that is where the rise in ticket sales has come from.

Their economies, unburdened by a monster car parking scheme, have gone from strength to strength.

Here in Scarborough we have seen visitor numbers decline, hotels close and facilities lost.

All the result of the introduction of the ill thought out parking scheme.

The news that 400-plus businesses have applied for rate rebates should not come as a surprise to anyone.

There will undoubtedly be more. The loss in business rates revenue to the council will be colossal – far outweighing any money the scheme may ultimately generate.

The parking scheme itself has still not made one penny profit.

Any revenue it does earn is used to repay set-up costs, pay running fees and prop up the white elephant park and ride.

The first projected date for any profit from the scheme is the financial year 2005/2006 but with costs rising and income falling the scheme may never return a profit.

This is the reality of this shambles of a scheme.

This council can't say it wasn't warned that it would all end in tears. Most trade organisations in the town were against the scheme's introduction and said so.

Many thousands of residents were against the scheme, over 60 per cent in the Avenues opposed the scheme and over 90 per cent of Columbus Ravine were against it. I know because I asked them.

Many of the Independent members of the council told their party political colleagues that the scheme had many flaws and should be scaled down but they refused to listen.

Now, three years on, we have falling car park revenues, falling visitor numbers and businesses having to be compensated for their losses.

Cllr NK Murphy
Centurion Way
Villa Fields
Crossgates