Is it because the roads are for driving on? Maybe this scheme should be national, then people might clear their garages and park on their own property instead of expecting everyone else to put up with their cars. How many families do we know with more cars than they have space for? Perhaps a permit to own a car based on your ability to store it off the road could also be adopted.

This scheme cannot come quick enough if you ask me. The numbers of commuters now parking and causing real problems in Bowhill is well beyond a joke now and needs sorting. Also, just look at the cars that now flought the law and park alonside McDonalds etc! This is dangerous as it's supposed to be a pedestrianised zone not a free car park.

So Borough Council, get you collective fingers out and get on with a job long over due!

I hope all of you in favour have read the small print and understand that paying the permit fee does not mean you are guaranteed a parking space in your zone. Where will you park if you cannot find a space in your zone?
Also that in confined areas, homes will only be allowed one permit per home. Many homes in Kettering do not have garages or drives - so the holier than thou approach of 'clearing your garage' is not always applicable.

Mr Drage - I do hope you would be happy to pay unemployment benefit to all those who would be banned from owning cars under your scheme and would therefore be unable to travel to work.

"DT" - I'm fortunate to have a drive that will take 3 cars and I USE IT, unlike so many who prefer to litter the pavements with their cars. Pavements are for pedestrians and not cars, something that seems to have been forgotten by many selfish parkers these days.

Secondly, there are areas of genuine concern where selfish and tight fisted motorists leave their cars for hours, if not all day, so they can save a few pounds rather than park in the hospital, or, save money rather than park at the station which has hundreds of spaces the last time I looked. This needs addressing and the new scheme, though yes expensive for some, will bring a degree of "fairness" back into the troubled areas affected. Thus, I support it and the employment of Wardens to clear the streets of the thousands of ilegally parked cars.

I have just returned from the town and counted NINE vehicles parked alonside Peacocks/McDondals! Not one had a ticket or any right to park there. Walking towards the Market Square I was pestered by at least two cars driving merrily along the pedestrian zone past HSBC etc, again totally illegally. I think it's time these selfish and potentially dangerous drivers were stopped and faced fixed penalties. Why is it I can pay and park legally in the many car parks dotted around the town centre yet some tight fisted motorists think the pedestrianised area is a free car park set aside just for them? Time it was stopped and the sooner the better!

Roberto wrote -

>"DT" - I'm fortunate to have a drive that will take 3 >cars and I USE IT, unlike so many who prefer to >litter the pavements with their cars. Pavements are >for pedestrians and not cars, something that seems to >have been forgotten by many selfish parkers these days.

Yes you are fortunate - I live up Oxford Street - my house fronts straight onto the pavement. The street is narrow and there is not much room as it is. I have no choices apart from getting rid of my vehicle. I doubt they will let us have more than one permit per household here, and yet a few families down here have more than one car because they commute out of Kettering to work, and their grown-up children have cars to get to work. The presumption is that our street must get full of people parking in the town to go shopping - it doesn't. Look at Dryden Street which has permit parking - it's empty most of the time. It's fund-raising exercise.

>Secondly, there are areas of genuine concern where >selfish and tight fisted motorists leave their cars >for hours, if not all day, so they can save a few >pounds rather than park in the hospital, or, save >money rather than park at the station which has >hundreds of spaces the last time I looked. This needs >addressing and the new scheme, though yes expensive >for some, will bring a degree of "fairness" back into >the troubled areas affected.

How is it fair to punish people who live in an area with permit fees so that others can't park there? It is not those who park thoughtlessly that will be paying.

As for the hospital, it was reported a short while ago that there is not even enough space for staff to park in the car-park, so they may not be parking 'selfishly' at all - just as near to work as they can get at the time.

> Thus, I support it and the employment of Wardens to >clear the streets of the thousands of ilegally parked >cars.

Gets a few more people of the dole I suppose.

>I have just returned from the town and cou

The last part of my reply to Roberto was cut off!

What I wanted to say that illegal parking in the town centre is nothing to do with permit parking for residents.
I am happy to support an argument that town centre parking abuse be enforced, but it is a seperate issue, and not connected with the issue of permit-parking for residents.

Oh yes - and parking in a street with no parking restrictions is not 'illegal'.

"DT" - when you buy a house there are a number of things you consider before buying, including: "Will I be able to fit my family into it"? Etc, etc. The problem is few people consider whether they can park their half dozen cars in a terraced street for example? I think if more people considered parking then there would be less people with several cars moving into side streets. There is an alternative, walk, buy a bicycle or use the bus. In many instances the sheer numbers of cars in a household is totally daft.

At the end of the day there is only so much space in this crowded island of ours. I do not subscribe to the commonly held view that because I own a car (or more than one car) therefore I should be able to park wherever and whenever I like, even if this obstructs pavements or is in a restricted area. If we all were as selfish as the few then there would be anarchy.

I still maintain that we need rules and that they should be enforced, and if that upsets the car lobby then tough. Time our streets and pavements were reclaimed by people other than selfish car drivers.

As I say, residents parking and proper enforcement is long over due so bring it on.

To me a permit to park in front of your own house is the biggest bunch of BULL I have ever heard of. It would never work here in the USA as council members who would vote for it would be out of a job in days and new members elected. The hospital could build a multi level parking like at Newlands. The same could be done in other places in town. Why not just charge a fiver once a year for a sticker to put on window of auto and hire a couple of more police to get out and do their job like they are paid to do as do know you have a shortage of coppers. Duh! Wake up.