I HAVEN'T sent anything in to the Echo's letters section before but, after reading in Thursday's paper Poole council have 'wasted' £10,000 on refurbishing a meeting room, I felt I had to have my say.

I am a wheelchair-bound, tax exempt motorist and I'm astonished that they decided to make people like myself pay to park because they can't afford to pay for the upkeep of the database, yet they can suddenly afford to refurbish a meeting room or buy a new mayoral car.

Do they not realise they are driving many motorists like myself away from Poole because we can't afford to pay for parking especially as we can go into Bournemouth and park for free?

Poole's loss is Bournemouth's gain.

If they knew how much money a severely disabled person had to pay out for in disability-related expenditure they would understand why we can't afford to pay out for parking charges on top.

They should be making it easier for the disabled to go out, be inclusive in society and be more independent not make it harder.

They are shooting themselves in the foot, because they're losing our custom.

I certainly won't be visiting Poole anytime soon.

The council have got their priorities all wrong.

MATTHEW ADAMS Braeside Road, West Moors

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