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Why should parents be given special treatment?
• UNIVERSITY College School is holding an auction of promises on June 24, and was auctioning “the chance to bid for a car park space at the Junior Branch – slap bang in the middle of Hampstead”.
I believe this item may have now been withdrawn, possibly in reaction to negative editorial coverage.
If UCS is working to resolve the school-run traffic problem, it seems incongruous that it should be adding to the problem by encouraging car parking in Hampstead – most likely to a parent who does not live in Hampstead. This is a specific example of the failure of some schools to embrace the issue in a meaningful way. There are other general examples.
Why have parking dispensation vouchers been issued to new parents, when it was agreed in 2004 that this would not happen? Pupil numbers have increased significantly since 2004, exacerbating the problem.
Why is it not clear in all the literature of all the schools that there is no provision for parking adjacent to the schools?
But, critically, why should one user group – school-run parents – be treated preferentially to any other user group? I can think of various user groups who would like such preferential treatment, such as those transporting the elderly who do not have disabled classification, those attending hospitals and clinics with the young or the infirm and those using Hampstead shops and services and unable to park legally
The list is endless. Schools are businesses like any other. There is no valid reason to prioritise this group of business users over any other.
Residents are prepared to approach this problem in a reasonable way and seek compromises. Until the schools behave in similar vein, this will not be productive. Unfortunately, UCS’s example is a very poor one.
JO KONRAD
FAROKH KHOROOSHI
Wedderburn Road, NW3
• SEVERAL correspondents in recent weeks have pointed out the problems they face in getting children to school.
I agree that public transport needs to be improved, but I find it impossible to accept that some have no choice but to drive their children to school.
Fifty-five per cent of Camden residents do not have access to a car. They have no choice but not to drive their children to school, and I do not think that car owners should have a permanent exemption from the normal parking rules.
DUDLEY MILES
Belsize Park Gardens, NW3
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