letter

Dear Sir

I write to protest that Wellingborough Councillor are trying to delay the residents in Castle ward voting on the issue of parking around Wellingborough station.

Having lived in London for many years before moving to Wellingborough I have had plenty of experience of all sorts of parking schemes designed to protect spaces for residents of narrow Victorian streets with simply not enough space to park.
As pointed out by various Wellingborough Councillors in their meeting last week, there are many streets in this borough with this problem., so one day they may even have to work out what to do elsewhere. But that is not the issue here.

I am certain that local councillors responsible for station areas anywhere in London who had failed in their duty to protect their own resident council tax payers' parking spaces from non resident visitors, would not be around long to tell the tale about being frugal. So protecting residents is nothing sensationally new.
Name a station in London where there is not protected parking for residents in the area and I might understand the arguement that there is nothing special about parking in streets around stations.

"You don't own the streets" I hear and "you don't have the right to park outside your house". But this is not what we want.
We want just a scheme which will allow us to choose to buy, yes buy, some priority (not an absolute right but some priority) over those who are too penny pinching and selfish to accept there is a fee for leaving a car for as long as you like in an area with no space to spare.
It is clear that whatever the station car park fees are there will be those who will keep their money, by parking wherever they can if it is free.
By failing to support the council officers recommmendation for a local vote by residents on a parking sceme around the station, elected councillors are virtually handing out money to those who for the most part pay nothing back to Wellingborough, yet make life miserable for those who live here and pay council tax. Why are they doing this?

Allan Blackman