Car park misery in Wokingham

Why does a Lib Dem Council in Wokingham so dislike motorists? Why do they want our lives to be miserable?

I recently attended an evening meeting with some Councillors at their Shute End offices. I parked in a near empty car park and went to the payment machine as they now charge for evening use of their car park. In the rain I waited patiently behind the only other user of the park at that time as he wrestled to try to pay. He needed several attempts to enter the data required, only to be thwarted each time because the machine would not accept his card in payment. He then went off to try another machine.

I decided to battle with the one I was waiting for. I needed to clean the rain drops off from the touch screen. It was hard work getting the to0uch screen to accept data as I tried to complete their questions. It took three goes to successfully load the data. I did have coins with me so I tried that and to my relief it worked. I eventually did get a printed out paper ticket which I needed to shield from the rain as I took it back to the car. I was soaked from doing all this in heavy rain.

Do no Councillors ever try out the technology they are imposing? Do they not experience what many of my constituents experience, that the technology is often poor and the instructions badly formulated? Do they have to money grab all the time? Why have they cancelled free visitor parking for those who do need to go to see them at the Council offices?