NO to Area F parking zone: We haven't been given all the information

I live in the northern part of the area where off-road parking means there is no shortage of space. The scheme would change this. The council's plans will reduce spaces by 14% on average - and by much more than this in many smaller roads in the northern area.

I want to prevent the area and environment being ruined by road markings, signs, and hundreds of front gardens becoming new car parks. I worry about carers, home-helps and the like being unable to do their jobs if the scheme is introduced - or that church congregations, clubs, and social groups will struggle to survive or that friends will stop coming to see us.

I hate the fact that the scheme - by reducing parking - will cause the rash of zones to spread ever onwards, and that the nighttime parking problems at Fiveways will not be solved by fewer spaces and this proposed daytime scheme.

I dislike the way the council has countered every alternative idea by saying 'put this in your consultation form comments box' knowing that residents in Zone J, to the south, did this and were ignored, or that the council's current policy does not allow "light-touch" schemes - as they are not self-financing - when they really mean they will introduce parking schemes only that earn many hundreds of thousands of pounds.

I wonder why the consultation has taken place in the summer holidays, when many are away.  Or why there is only one vote per household whatever the number of residents or cars. The council's policy says schemes will be introduced only when requested by local residents and councillors. Yet just two residents in the northern part of the proposal area asked for it.

How democratic is that?

I don't like the fact that we haven't been given all the information, such as teachers at the local schools having a permit allocation. I also wonder why the council cannot address the camper van issue in Surrenden Road. Very conveniently, this has caused many to vote "Yes" out of fear.

I voted "No" in the hope that most fair-minded people would do the same and that the council would then listen to our concerns and bring in light-touch schemes - but only in the parts of the area that need them.

I feel the consultation was a box-ticking exercise and that the decision will be a foregone conclusion, if we don't continue to complain.

For this reason, don't stop now. Join me - and let's bury our councillors in a blizzard of objections to this money-grabbing scheme.

Please email your local councillors and those on the committee before they vote on October 13.

For more information, visit: www.surrenden-fiveways.org.uk