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Letter 10
22/07/04RE: FOOTWAY PARKING IN PLANTATION ROAD
Dear Sir or Madam,
Thank you for your reply, dated 21/07/2004, to my letter, dated 06/07/2004, regarding penalty notice BL41144478. However, it is clear from the photograph that you have provided that the vehicle in question is parked sensibly and not causing a problem, there should, therefore, be no question of a penalty notice being issued against such a vehicle parked in this manner. I have already stated that the reason there is no marked bay in this location is purely because the location crosses my drive. The engineer that painted the bays told me personally at the time that he would not paint a bay there so as not to encourage people to unwittingly block my access. That is the only reason. In a modern and just society, penalties should only be levied against people who are doing wrong, not people who are doing the sensible thing.
Footway parking is essential in Plantation Road because the pavements are very wide, 2.66 metres on one side and 2.77 metres on the other. The road, by comparison, is very narrow at just 6.1 metres wide. An average vehicle is approximately 2 metres wide (including wing mirrors), and vans, delivery lorries and fire engines are wider than that. It doesn't take a genius to work out that if vehicles are not parked on the footway in such circumstances, it causes access problems, not just for residents and delivery lorries, but also for emergency vehicles, and possibly could even endanger life, as I have indicated to Bexley Council on more than one occasion. I therefore charge the local authority with being grossly irresponsible and directly accountable for the amount of unnecessary aggravation, damage to vehicles, and access problems that we have had to endure. I am also charging them with unjustly ripping us off in a continual and consistent fashion by deliberately failing to acknowledge and address a serious problem as communicated by the residents that live in this road, and to acknowledge a simple, commonsense solution.
Over the years since this ridiculous, indiscriminate and poorly thought out legislation was brought in, we have had a high degree of vehicle damage, considerable access problems and we have been continually milked for trying to do sensible thing. Despite writing a number of letters to the local authority, we have not managed to get any local autonomy for the people that have to live here. This would not be so bad if we could see that the authorities were right, but it is plainly evident, as far as we are concerned, that they are not! The blatant disregard and lack of consideration being expressed by the local authority and the army of people that represent it, is currently cultivating a high degree of bad feeling amongst the residents. I put it to you that the mentality you promote is the same mentality that is causing war in other countries, the same mentality that is responsible for terrorism and the same mentality that our ancestors fought two world-wars to try and prevent. Let us remember that the Nazis were just following orders too!
Unless you can substantiate that the vehicle in question is parked in a dangerous manner, or in a manner so as to cause obstruction to others, there should be no question of a penalty notice being issued. I will be writing to John Payne yet again to try and get this issue resolved to the satisfaction of the people who have to live here because we are all completely fed up with this issue and the problems that go with it. The next letter to John Payne will be letter number seven in reply to the last letter we received, which he sent on behalf of Linda Jackson in August 2002. Letters three, four, five and six were addressed to, and answered by Linda Jackson herself. This does not include letters, such as this one, regarding parking fines. It also takes no account of letters written previously, or letters written by other people, regarding these problems.
Yours faithfully,
D.J. Tarrant