PARKING PROBLEMS: Shoppers using the car park at the Beckenham branch of Marks & Spencer should be aware it is now managed by a private car park company, an employee of which will issue a £50 penalty notice to anyone exceeding a free two-hour period or who does not park within the parking bay lines. Unfortunately a green notice board at the entrance to the car park gives details only of the charges under the old regime with no mention of any penalty. Fifty yards into the car park there is a much smaller yellow notice mounted on a lamp standard which is not legible as one drives in. This tactic does seem designed to catch people, transgressors though they be. I pointed out the inadequacy of this warning of the penalty to the manager of Marks & Spencer and was told the car park had nothing to do with her company and I should put my complaint to the car park company.

Name and address supplied

HOW WE SURVIVED: Steve Poole (Being Selfish Only Creates Problems, News Shopper Letters, September 6) wonders how we ever managed to get through the dark days of 1939 to 1945. We were a different people then Mr Poole. We had grumblers and slackers, as Britain was not Utopia, but we were brought up not to expect everything handed to us on a plate. We had a totally different attitude to life. We had no political correctness hanging over our heads. Now the generation which fought the war is treated as an irrelevancy, a nuisance and a burden.

Recalling the Chancellor's last budget speech, pensioners did not even get a mention. (I am open to correction on this). Nevertheless, we will get on with life because that is what we were taught to do. That's how we came through the dark days of war.

J Fothergill, Beckenham

I SALUTE YOU: I never thought I would live to see the day I would witness a councillor and portfolio holder for public protection and safety lying down on the job (Councillor Not Board At Roadshow, News Shopper, August 23). Councillor George Taylor is a brave man or is he taking such action for his own protection and safety? As one councillor who adopts, it seems to me, more than his share of high-profile activities, can we now expect him to adopt a lower profile as featured in the edition of the paper where he is photographed lying down while enthusiastic skateboarders circle above him? Watch this space. Keep up the good work councillor. I applaud you.

J Gamet, Keston