Dear Editor,

My original reason for contacting you was to congratulate the person at Morrisons who decided to introduce the new parking arrangements at our local store.

For a few days the car park was beautifully spacious, which gave a true reflection of the number of people in the store actually shopping and allowed regular customers to park with ease.

Unfortunately I discovered yesterday that the store has now abandoned the idea as it says it has listened to their customers. Whilst it is always encouraging that consumers views are considered important, having spoken to staff during the last week, when I expressed my support for the new system, I was disgusted to discover that many of the staff have dreaded going to work due to the verbal abuse they have received from customers, who did not agree with the new parking arrangements.

It is evident that the store has given in to the vitriolic tirades from people who wanted to demonstrate their opposition to such arrangements.

Technically Morrisons were not charging for parking, they were merely requesting commitment from customers to show that they were using the store and in return they would refund the parking fee at the till. The process was totally logical and protected the legitimate customers using the store. What was the problem with using a machine to do this?

I realise that it is difficult to please everyone; we live in a democratic society that allows free speech, however I wonder how long it will be before the parking abusers return; parking on Morrisons car park and popping into town all because they want something for nothing, thereby leaving few parking spaces for genuine shoppers?

Name and address supplied