What price the life of a child?

The cost of a parking ticket, is the answer.

Have you tried to drive past a school in the morning or evening, it's very difficult sometimes impossible in a car, try it in a small or large bus!

I and quite a few others, drive a 12 seater minibus taking and collecting children with special needs for education and adults for day care, in one day my route takes me past schools in Bexley Lane, Blackfen Road, Burnt Oak Lane, Days Lane, Dorchester Avenue, Hurst Road, Sherwood Park Avenue and Townley Road.

In the morning, the various no parking zones created at some cost are covered by parked vehicles, every part of the roadway, footpath, every corner is used, double parking in the roadway is common, in the afternoon/evening it's even worse as now we have the darker evenings, it's raining even more vehicles trying to park as near as possible to a given school.

As regular drivers in the borough we know that many of the vehicle owners live not three or four streets from the school, and in the afternoon some now arrive up to 30 minutes before school closes to get a parking place anywhere near the school, on a cold wet dark afternoon, trying to get past a school is nigh on impos-sible, and as many of the vehicles are on local use they are cold, all steamed up as the heaters do not work, result is vehicle inci-dents and people getting squashed, its a total disaster, which can be fixed by the contractor to Bexley Council, Sureway Parking is-suing tickets for offences, this will result in grief from the vehicle owners, but the plus side is less accidents outside schools, which is why the no waiting restrictions are there.

You might ask, why are the areas concerned not looked at by the parking contractor? I do not know, what I do know is that if you park in the Broadway,(such a lovely wide road) you will get a ticket as there as many parking attendants as bees around a jam-pot.

M Whitby

Burleigh Avenue

Sidcup

November 23, 2001 11:47