SIR — Someone must know. What is going on at the Tower Street car park in Winchester?

How many millions and man-hours can the council bury there?

It was never a nice place, always cold and wet and brooding in an otherwise beautiful city, but it was close to my work and often the machines accepted money, worked and dispensed cards that opened gates.

The loos were fine. It was always damp, and when it rained, well flooded, but if you were early, that is, before 9am, you could get a spot.

Then for reasons that aren’t clear, the council must have decided to create a black hole in its budget and totally renovate the exterior and fill the interior with contractors, noise and confusion, which must now be going on almost two years.

The machines were the first to go, to be replaced by a wonderful option of booking your parking on the phone, all for a 30 pence extra charge.

Well, that works for me! I could rent a parking space without carrying £30 or £40 a week worth of pound coins, and if my work was over-running, I could buy more time. Great idea!

At first the renovation job wasn’t too disruptive, but then as time went on, the builders needed more and more space to store material, crash gates and, of course, their own vehicles.

The scaffolding and new mesh interfered with mobile phones, so you could no longer rent space from within the facility, but hey, it was often too noisy to think or speak or understand anything inside the parking area, there was so much building going on.

Amazingly, the flooding got worse. Then we had closures, and then more parking bays cordoned off, and then alternate entrance closures, and the difficulty of finding the exit — if you could get in.

Now an entire floor is off limits. It is extremely difficult to find your way in, and almost impossible to walk out.

Does the council care? A considerate council might offer a discount, an apology, ear plugs, a map, but no, what I got today was a ticket for failing to display a valid ticket despite calling and paying.

Oh well, it’s nice to know in the time of recession, some people seem to have a job for life.

The Great Pyramid at Giza took time as well.

C Cochand, Carlton Crescent, Southampton.