I HAVE read over recent weeks how Bolton Council have made a hash over its gritting of the town's roads in icy weather, and also how the Government has expressed doubts over the Council's ability to spend the £35m transport cash from Metrolink.

In fact, the only thing the Council seems to excel at is robbing the public of its money for parking charges and fines.

My wife and I have stopped shopping in Bolton town centre altogether, except for a Saturday afternoon once every month and a half spent in Bolton Meat and Fish Market on Ashburner Street.

The Saturday before Christmas my wife and I set off for the market, but found its car park to be full. We drove around until we found a parking place at the gasworks end of Garside Street. My wife got out the pram for our three-year-old daughter, in howling icy winds. I went to the nearby parking meter to find it displaying "NOT IN USE". There were no other instructions to follow.

I returned to the car, made a sign saying that the meter was not in use and stating the time. I stuck it prominently in our car's windscreen. We then set off through the freezing wind, with our daughter, for a quick 20 minutes at the market.

On our return, we found a parking ticket on the windscreen. My wife sent a cheque for £30 with a letter explaining that the parking meter was not in use. We received a letter saying that the fine stood.

We were innocent, so we pressed on, and eventually we got a letter back from the fines people admitting their incompetence and giving us a £30 cheque. We had proved our point, but what still distresses me is that they operated on the principle that we were guilty until proven innocent. We only got justice because we had pushed and pushed.

I now publicly call on my MP Ruth Kelly, to come back here and sort the Council out.

David R Southworth

(Address supplied)