We know exactly what a pain these CPZ areas are... how angry they make residents and visitors

We moved in at start of March and were most pleased to find that Elmwood Road and surrounding roads did not have controlled parking. Having previously lived up in North London in a Scamden CPZ area, we know exactly what a pain these CPZ areas are, and how angry they make residents and visitors. Having to pay to park your own vehicle when you do not have off-street parking in areas that visibly does not have a parking issue results in such a proposal appearing to be nothing other than a stealth tax.

We feel particularly strongly in relation to visitor's permits, again as a result of previous experience. Having to queue up to purchase such permits is inconvenient, particularly given local office opening hours. Indeed I have been forced in the past to take time off work merely to sort out a permit. Usually a limit on the number of visitor permits applies, with an increasing cost scale based on how many one has already purchased within the financial year. Yet obtaining the permit is only half the story. Once you have it, your concern moves to correctly filling it out (foil scatch off), to whether your vehicle is too wide for the marked spaces, to badly signposted parking bay suspensions, and to having to place the permit in a specific window location after having checked it for the umpteenth time for fear that any minor scratch in the wrong box will invalidate the permit.

We have been subject to 2 parking fines under a CPZ system, both in situations where no offence had been committed, and on both occasions then had to endure the rigmarole of challenging the supposed contravention. We had to use our own photographic evidence, waste time and money on letters and phone calls, and on both occasions elicited not even an apology to accompany the acknowledgement that the enforcement officer had acted improperly when incorrectly issuing the ticket.

If the majority of the street's residents felt there was a problem then we would be happy to accept the majority will, but we have yet to witness an issue at any point during any week.

Matthew and Lauren Hogg