Country Park Rip Off

Nathalie and I (or should that be me?) went on our morning mountain bike ride today over Moors Valley and were surprised, no make that gobsmacked, to find the car parking charges at the Country Park had gone up from £2.20 for two hours to £4.50. I went to the information desk and asked why this was the case and was told, very honestly it must be said, by the lady on reception that it was "because it's half term."

"Well I worked that one out," I replied trying to keep calm, "but that's outrageous, surely if you are expecting more people the price should stay the same or working on the theory of more customers the price should come down."

"Well you don't actually pay to come into the park, the charge is for the maintenance."
"But last week that maintenance cost me £2.20 and this week it's costing me £4.50."
"That's right, so if you have five people in your car it's still pretty cheap."
"That's not the point. I would be happy to pay the £4.50 all the year round, what I object to is the fact that you have put the price up simply because it's half term."
She shrugged her shoulders at this point.
"Do you sell season tickets?"
"Yes, if you pay £40 today you can get in anytime for the next year."

Okay now let's try and work the economics of this. I go each Sunday that's not in a half term or school holiday and excluding Christmas and Easter that's about 40 weeks. So that's £1 each visit. That means I'm contributing less to the maintenance than if I didn't buy a season ticket, so how does the park benefit from that? If I didn't buy the ticket I would be contributing nearly £90, so the park loses out, where's the sense in that (from the park management point of view).

I'm fed up with Britain ripping off people who contribute so much in terms of the economy - parents. Why should we be charged double for the car park when all other prices have stayed the same. Incidentally when we left the Park it wasn't as full as on a non-Half Term weekday or weekend, that's the Park's fault for advertising the Car Park rates outside of the park so you could turn round if you wanted to. I didn't because I thought they'd made a mistake and at least having a moan made me feel better!