Mr. Cormac Kennedy:

I represent a retailer that has a presence in both out-of-town and town centre locations and car parking charges come up for discussion. I do not genuinely think charging for parking in out-of-town centres will help town centres, rather it would be to the detriment of out-of-town locations.

When one considers the results of the survey and the responses to question No. 6, the rationale for somebody going to the town centre, the answer was car parking. The focus should be on getting retailers and the hospitality sector into towns. Sometimes the conversations are about car parking and rates, but this is probably an unwinnable argument to a certain extent because there needs to be a charge to run the town, but nobody wants to pay for it. As a retailer organisation, we would be in the same boat as anyone else, not wanting to pay that charge, but it must be paid for somewhere along the way. The focus should be on how to get retail and hospitality businesses to set up in towns. One attracts businesses to a location by creating the nice environment Mr. Fitzsimons described and following the examples Mr. Blackwell gave from the United Kingdom. Retailers will follow each other. If a large retailer moves into a town, other retailers will follow because they will feel the confidence behind them. If a large retailers leave a town, other retailers will leave also. It operates very much on herd instinct. The focus needs to be on this rather than other issues. I am not taking from the very important points made, butit would be of greater benefit to focus on the other side.