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Letters to the Editor
 
We have to drive our kids to school

• It is a great shame that Camden Council is not prepared to listen to the 1,500 of its constituents who signed the STAG petition opposing the withdrawal of school parking permits.
Contrary to Councillor John Thane’s contentions (letters March 9), the council steam-rolled the policy through without proper reference to the views of residents and parents.
The council’s own consultation report stated that the permits should not be withdrawn until a long list of alternatives had been put in place. Only one out of 15 have been implemented.
This policy simply won’t work because many parents have no realistic options but to drive. Many of the people who signed STAG’s petition do not themselves need a permit but signed the petition because they recognise the policy will make congestion and parking problems worse not better.
Blaming schools’ communication with parents completely misses the point: many parents simply do not have suitable schools nearer home. The schools are concentrated in a small area where house prices are highly inflated, so few can afford to live within walking distance.
Most parents would love to walk or take public transport and avoid the hellish school run if they could. But we encounter the most basic problems that should have been resolved well before withdrawing permits. We can’t get onto overcrowded buses, public transport coverage is inadequate and Tubes and buses are completely inaccessible for children in buggies.
The policy will result in increased congestion and parking contraventions as parents are forced to ‘drop and run’ at the school gates or circle as a second adult picks up children.
Hampstead Parochial School found this early this term when its permits were delayed for three weeks. There was chaos as parents had to drive right up to the school gates afraid of getting parking tickets.
Do the supporters of this policy realise that it only applies to children under 10? Ironically it has no impact on older children who can be dropped off and picked up without a permits because they can make their way in and out alone. The policy affects nursery age children, pregnant mothers and sick siblings, many of whom will be forced on long and difficult journeys to and from school.
STAG and schools have been working hard on many initiatives to address the underlying inadequacies in the public and private transport alternatives but we cannot single-handedly solve the major transport infrastructure problems that bedevil the north of the borough.
If Cllr Thane was really interested in encouraging parents to “think about healthier alternatives” he would be working to make more of these available. The council’s travel plans are simply window dressing and do nothing to address the underlying problem.
V Fobel
Schools Travel Action Group (STAG)


Send your letters to: The Letters Editor, Camden New Journal, 40 Camden Road, London, NW1 9DR or email to letters@camdennewjournal.co.uk. The deadline for letters is midday Tuesday. The editor regrets that anonymous letters cannot be published, although names and addresses can be withheld. Please include a full name, postal address and telephone number. Letters may be edited for reasons of space.
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