Bollards are a waste of space

Published on 24th April 2008 in Letters

Sir - I read with interest the letter from Kevin Owen (What is the point of these space-wasters?) concerning the new parking restrictions being imposed, amongst others, on the residents of Dunhill Road and have to say I agree totally with his sentiments.

Not content with catching residents parking illegally during the middle of the night, the powers that be have now introduced their bollards into this residential area, seemingly for no other reason than to reduce the total amount of parking space available the whole day through?

What has made me add to this debate though is something I heard on Radio Humberside... they advised that ERYC have had today been 'forced' to increase their parking charges across the area by 25 per cent to cover their losses, whilst at the same time complaining about the lack of finance to fund projects! I'm sorry, but this frankly beggars belief!

Obviously, issuing tickets to residents while asleep in their beds hasn't quite covered the shortfall in their budget, so as they apparently haven't been able to increase revenue sufficiently to balance their books, perhaps the spending on this particular 'project' should have been reconsidered before pleading poverty?

Of course, now that there is less space to park, there could be a further potential benefit for the council's coffers, in being able to catch out more residents than ever, should any dare to encroach on the inordinately long double yellow lines that decorate this road.

The cost of this exercise might then become self-funding, where the scheme is financed through an increase in parking fines, so were even more bollards to be put in place, the council could really reap dividends...

Never mind! At least the next time we have local elections, the councillors who 'represent' our interests will surely come to call and will be only too willing to explain the rationale of introducing these obstacles to a confused resident! Or am I just living in cloud cuckoo land?

T. Hubbard

Dunhill Road, Goole