IF you've ever landed on the "free parking" square in Monopoly, you'll know what a boon it can be.

Now Worcester MP Mike Foster is saying that waiving car park charges would also provide a financial fillip for city businesses.

He's calling for the council to give the pay and display machines

a day of rest to entice Sunday shoppers into the city centre.

Now, we're all for bringing more people shopping in Worcester.

This is a great city for spending money in, with a wide range to shops, from big chain stores to specialist boutiques.

But we think Mr Foster might be mistaken when he says the prolonged High Street refurbishment has led to a "massive loss of customers".

Anyone walking down the attractively revamped thoroughfare on a Saturday would see that the demise of Worcester's city centre has been greatly exaggerated.

However, Mr Foster's concern that small businesses are in trouble may be justified.

There's been much talk recently about "clone towns" dominated by big name chain stores.

The question is, would free parking really stop the rot?

The evidence is that people are quite happy to pay a couple of pounds for the kind of mixture of shops Worcester offers.

The real danger is the high rents that big conglomerates can afford but small traders cannot.

Get rid of parking charges by all means, but if the city council really wants to ensure that Worcester has a vibrant mix of retail businesses, it may want to focus on rents instead.