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Letter 1
Re: Penalty Notice and Footway Parking in Plantation Road
28/04/97
Dear Sir,
I am very disturbed that we have received a penalty notice for a footway parking incident which we do not feel we should be liable for. I am also very disturbed by the circumstances surrounding the issuing of this notice which left us feeling like it was an act of malice.
As I have now explained several times over the phone, the residents in Plantation Road have been parking on the footway one side of the road at least since we bought this property in 1982. The reason for this is because the footways are too wide in comparison to the width of the road and parking on the footway has been the only way to aid access to parking spaces and properties. The residents were quite happy with this commonsense arrangement until a Traffic Warden issued us with a penalty notice.
This Traffic Warden did not even work in this area and said she just happened to be driving past as she noticed our vehicle parked with two wheels on the pavement. She was not sympathetic to any of the problems residents in this road face and even though these problems were clearly explained to her, by myself and my wife (who incidentally saw the Traffic Warden arrive and went straight outside to try and reason with her), the Traffic Warden insisted on issuing a penalty notice. As we were immediately on the spot I would have thought it would have been more appropriate to have given a verbal warning, by pointing out that it was an offence to park in this manner, rather than steaming ahead with a parking ticket. Perhaps then we would have felt like we had been considered fairly and not like we'd been abused by somebody in uniform!
For six years, in between 1990 and 1996, I had a transit van which I would not have been able to park on my driveway if vehicles had not been parked partially on the pavement. There is not enough turning room in between the cars when parked solely on the road. Even though I now have a small van it is still very difficult negotiating parked vehicles usually with just inches to spare. Since vehicles have been forced to park strictly on the road, several vehicles have been damaged due to the tightness of the parking situation, the residents are unhappy about this, and as I have explained several times over the phone to various people, with vehicles parked strictly on the road, it is doubtful that a fire engine could access the houses at the bottom of the road, certainly the dustcart cannot get down the road. Even if a fire engine could get between the parked cars, the Fire Officers would not have room to access the compartments at the side of the pump. A potentially hazardous and even lethal situation would you not agree?
Also for two days in succession this week my wife was disturbed first thing in the morning by the workmen laying the cable TV ducting in Plantation Road, who had to knock at the door to ask my wife to move the car because with it parked solely on the road they couldn't get their lorry between the vehicles. As well as the fact that my wife has better things to do at that time of the morning (having two children to get ready), it does underline the difficulties we are facing in this road. As we have now been told footway parking is illegal unless we are on a list of excused roads, and not being able to park on the footway causes unacceptable problems with access to the road, I am sending a copy of this letter to Mr Kiley at Sidcup Place, as advised. We are not saying we want the pavement restructured but we would like Plantation Road excused, thereby allowing residents to park partially on the footway where and when necessary without the threat of receiving such penalty notices hanging over our heads. Thank you.
Yours faithfully,
D.J. Tarrant