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Letter 7
RE: FOOTWAY PARKING IN PLANTATION ROAD
08/08/02
Dear Linda,
Thank you for your letter dated 31/05/02 in reply to our most recent letter regarding footway parking. Thank you also for the leaflet enclosed, which does throw some light on the reasoning behind the ban. However, having studied the points noted in the leaflet, it seems apparent that none of them apply to Plantation Road, or roads similar to Plantation Road, except for possibly the worry of cracked paving slabs.
I thank you for addressing the many issues we have raised, although, I do note that you have not as yet explained the problem with allowing us blanket exemption for Plantation Road, instead of the unsightly white lines that have been painted on our pavements. As we have expressed in our prior correspondence, this would, in fact, be preferable to us and, as it would absolve the local authority of any complications regarding people parking near the junction, we would have thought that this would then satisfy everyone. Plantation Road, and roads similar in nature, do not meet the criteria listed as problematic in the pavement parking leaflet and therefore, we feel, should not be included with such. The types of road listed and pictured in the enclosed leaflet have very narrow pavements to begin with. This adds weight to the validity of the point we made about a blanket ban being like using a 'sledgehammer-to-crack-a-nut' and, as the footway parking ban has caused so many problems, weight to the validity of the argument in favour of alternative criteria. Having weighed up the evidence and the points for and against footway parking, we can see no reason as to why roads such as Plantation Road cannot be given blanket exemption and feel that this should be the case for all such roads whose pavements are disproportionately wide with respect to the width of the carriageway. The problem of cracked paving slabs is easily solved by alternatively surfacing pavements with tarmac or concrete, as many already are.
We are still of the belief that our argument is substantially superior to the one being offered by the local authority, which does not stand up to scrutiny or comparison. We are arguing in favour of commonsense, fairness, safety and practicality, and feel that it can, and is, being shown that, in this instance, the local authority are ignoring all of these factors as well as the feelings of the people that live in and around this road and that own the houses on either side. We do not find this acceptable and, on behalf of all people in similar circumstances, we would like to continue to highlight this problem until commonsense prevails. A healthy society involves sensible and careful distribution and allocation of available resource and we feel that this principle is just as important when applied to roads and footways as it is with anything else. We understand that the local authority has no plans to modify the width of pavements accordingly and yet many roads, such as Plantation Road, suffer from disproportionate and impractical footway modelling. Many people are unhappy about this current state of affairs and we would like to pursue the matter further. Would you, therefore, please explain the problem with giving us blanket exemption for Plantation Road and would you also please provide the names and postal addresses of the head persons responsible for the implementation of the footway parking ban, both within Bexley Council, and London as a whole, so that we can write to them and express our discontent, and further our campaign for a change in the law and the right to do what we feel is appropriate and best in our own roads? Thank you.
Yours faithfully,
D.J. Tarrant