FURTHER to the front page splash last week I would like to suggest the real victims of the Floral Way Traffic Management proposals are the residents, who for years have been subjected to inconsiderate and illegal parking by school-run parents.

And now they are being threatened with draconian proposals that will see many residents and their visitors, especially in the Millway Gardens area, banned from parking outside their own homes.

The Proposed Floral Way Traffic Management Measures have come about after complaints regarding parents parking badly in residential roads during school drop-off and pickup times.

A simple solution would seem to be to encourage the police to slap tickets on illegally parked cars and issue advice to those showing a lack of consideration.

However, regarding the Millway Gardens area, it now appears to be Test Valley Borough Council, which is showing a harsh and blinkered lack of consideration.

The purpose of this proposed permit scheme must be to improve life for residents and be of benefit to them, not impose heavy handed restrictions on them. A residents’ parking scheme should achieve precisely that – exclude others at peak times but allow residents and their visitors to park freely as they do at present.

It has to be emphasised that there are no parking problems in the Millway Gardens area other than at school drop-off and collection times.

But an obvious lack of perception of the true situation means not everyone is entitled to apply for either a residents’ permit or even visitors’ permit!

The imposition of the proposed permit restrictions is completely unnecessary.

It is totally unacceptable to impose legal restrictions on how many visitors residents may have and at what times they can visit before having to be sent packing prematurely.

And there are also a number of occasions that involve residents’ cars being parked on the road, safely and at no inconvenience to their neighbours, which would mean decent people who have been excluded from the permit eligibility becoming law breakers on a regular basis.

Residents know their own needs and must be allowed to apply accordingly.

This is not a matter for council diktats.

If school run traffic is excluded there is absolutely no requirement to restrict residents’ parking in this area. Had proper site visits been carried out this would have been immediately obvious.

The intention to ease the situation is certainly commendable, and this scheme is surely intended to be of benefit and not blight the lives of residents, but that is what the current proposals will most surely achieve.

And we certainly should not have to pay to enjoy these simple rights.

However, if the cost of running a proper and acceptable residents’ parking scheme has to be recouped then it would seem a nominal, one-off payment per permit would have to be borne.

Joe Scicluna, Stourhead Close, Andover