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Letter 8
RE: FOOTWAY PARKING IN PLANTATION ROAD
14/01/03
Dear Mr Payne,
Thank you for your letter dated 22/08/02 in reply to our most recent letter to Miss Jackson regarding footway parking. We must point out that it is not the explanation of the Council's position that we find inadequate, but the position itself. As you say, the explanation in Miss Jackson's letters explaining the Council's position on pavement parking is quite adequate, however, the Council's position itself, we feel, is not. We have gone to great lengths to explain the commonsense viewpoint and the viewpoint held by those of us that live in this road. The Council's appreciation of, and response to, the points we have made regarding the practicalities and the various safety issues, is in itself inadequate and we feel not becoming of an authoritative body. If you are going to lay down the law, you should be sure that you have got it right and that you know what is best, and unfortunately, in this instance, despite our best efforts, it can be shown that this is not the case. It can also be shown that nobody else agrees with the Council's position. If nobody else agrees with the Council's position, one would think that perhaps it is indeed inadequate. We have tried to explain the reasons as to why we feel that this is the case, yet despite using every means at our literary disposal, we have not been able to get the Council to understand basic commonsense. I wonder why that is? If you feel that your hands are tied by the law, perhaps you could take up the issue with the relevant higher authority on behalf of your disgruntled constituents?
As far as we are concerned, we do not like being posed with the threat of receiving parking tickets for doing the sensible thing in our own road and we do not like the Council's controlling attitude and complete disregard for the feelings of the people that live here. We do not like being told what we can and can't do in our own road, against the grain of commonsense and public opinion, by people who do not even live here, and we do not like having parking bays painted all over our pavements when there is a preferable alternative. Many people currently think that the Council's attitude towards the rights of people to use and park their cars efficiently leaves a lot to be desired and we do not find that the Council is improving problems in these areas, but, much of the time, is making them worse. We are also unhappy about the fact that the Council is using public money to do this. It is about time that the local authorities stopped spending our money on things we do not want and started spending it on things that we do.
Please note! Nobody in your department has yet answered the question as to why roads such as Plantation Road cannot have a simple blanket exemption. We would prefer not to have unsightly white lines and marked bays on our pavements, which we have to pay to have painted, when alternatively we could just have a simple sign at the top of the road indicating that the road is Footway Parking Penalty Exempt. This is also what we would like to see for other similar roads where pavement sizes are disproportionate to the width of the roads and where parking on the pavement can be seen to be the sensible thing to do. For example, where the combined width of the pavements is greater than half the width of the road.
If the people in power cannot be seen to serve the people adequately and cannot be seen to acknowledge commonsense, then surely something is wrong? We are communicating to you that, as far as we are concerned, it is the Council's position that is currently inadequate and unacceptable. It is then surely your position to do something about this in order to resolve the problems and discontentment?
Yours faithfully,
D.J. Tarrant