Parking a problem? Buy a smaller car and use it less

Published: 28 January, 2011

• ONE must sympathise with Susan Kirby if she is unable to use the parking spaces near her house (We face time-consuming search for a place to park, January 21). From her letter I am led to believe she has paid for these spaces but she can’t use them because they are used by people who need to attend Whittington Hospital in the daytime.

I am very sorry for the few occasions before the introduction of the CPZ when I may inadvertently have made life “truly awful” for Ms Kirby. This would have been as I rushed my daughter’s godmother to hospital as she began to miscarry her second child or the two or three times when I drove my siblings to visit our mother during the last, few, painful days of her life.

The numerous parking fines Ms Kirby received should, quite obviously, be refunded by Islington Council. This is surely adding insult to injury. Not only must she double-park to offload her shopping, but she must then drive about to find a parking space, before walking the 10 or 20 minutes back to her home.

Surely she cannot be expected to walk the eight minutes which Google Maps says it would take from Cressida Road to Archway to buy her provisions.

It is obviously downright scandalous that her parking charges have increased by only a little short of £1 per week. This must be nearly as much as she has to spend on petrol driving around finding somewhere to park. 

My own parking charges have not increased at all, but I cannot find much comfort in this, because it demonstrates that my car must be smaller and inferior to Ms Kirby’s.

The implication is that Ms Kirby is a working mother with two small children at school. Forgive me if I have misinterpreted this, but she does drive the children to school before returning home to park for the day. Presumably, she also requires a car in the £147 parking permit bracket so she can fit the children into it.

I, too, am a working mother with two children at school. Nevertheless, I find time to take my children to school on foot (or by bus if we’re pushed for time). I then go to work on public transport. 

I know my car is just an ordinary, compact, urban model, but we all fit into it comfortably; it would be quite adequate for us for school runs and for weekly shopping, if we were that way inclined.

The message, Ms Kirby, is keep a car that is a bit smaller (so your parking permit costs are reduced) and also use it less (so it can stay nearer your house, and you won’t have to spend precious hours driving round to park). 

Then you’ll find it much easier to pop down in the middle of the day to Angel, Highbury Barn or Essex Road. Unless, that is, residents in these areas, get shirty, like you, and put a stop to it.

Personally, I think the “roaming” scheme is a brilliant idea. My guess is that it will rarely be used, and any increase in traffic will be negligible. But it offers residents that little bit of extra opportunity for our money.

LAURA JONES
Ringcroft Street, N7

• STRANGE how politicians manage not to see the obvious. 

We are told there is to be a new “roamer” parking scheme, allowing any Islington permit holder to park in any borough zone within limited hours each day.

Even if this does not cause an influx of new traffic, it will certainly encourage residents to drive short distances within the borough, rather than use public transport. 

Since blue badge holders are already catered for, what is the justification for augmenting the emissions that such travel will bring? Or is the council no longer interested in green issues?

Judging from the article (‘I’m penalised for using green-fuel car’, January 21) this may well be so. This driver has to pay the same punitive parking charge as drivers of equivalent petrol-guzzlers, even though his vehicle has been converted to use LPG. 

Why? Because, according to the council, it is “not possible” to take documents confirming the conversion into account. That sounds pathetic; if it isn’t possible, it should be, shouldn’t it?

RICHARD LEWIS
Oakley Road, N1

• I WAS extremely angered by the huge rise in residential parking permits that will take effect from January 31. 

My vehicle is a 2.8, and so falls into the most expensive band. It has risen from £200 a year to £391 a year – nearly 100 per cent. I very rarely use my vehicle, and when I do it is for journeys out of town. It feels to me this price increase is very unfair. I see it as a way for the council to raise extra income. 

I am already being taxed by the government on my CO2 emission (through my road tax) so I feel it is completely unfair for me to be taxed twice, particularly so highly and especially when I pay my parking permit to keep the car parked – not used, engine off – for the majority of time.

I shop, eat and drink in Islington, support local businesses, make sure I recycle everything I can, yet I feel betrayed and taken advantage of because of this massive increase. It is the first time in seven years I have considered leaving the borough and living elsewhere.

SIMON WHALLEY
Highbury New Park, N5