THE crass stupidity of CWAC’s plan to implement parking charges in Northwich is so obvious that it is hardly worthy of comment.

What is outrageous and must be opposed is any pressure or arm twisting that the council could exert on local retailers such as Sainsbury’s, Waitrose, Aldi, Tesco and Lidl which would force their customers to pay to use their private car parks.

I believe the council will want to protect the interests of ASDA, its largest tenant in its failing Barons Quay development.

The last thing it wants is for these stores to have a competitive advantage over ASDA, which depends on public car parking.

The ball is now in the court of the retailers.

Are they going protect their loyal customers by telling the bureaucrats in CWAC to stick to pencil pushing and leave running a retail business to people who know about it, or are they going to submit to the kind of tactics we saw used in the recent TK Maxx debacle?

The future of Northwich as a shopping centre could depend on their answer.

Liam Byrne Little Leigh