I have the misfortune to be a resident living within yards of the end of the current Ealing Dean CPZ and I have watched with dismay the impact of the huge amount of displaced traffic now trawling for parking spaces in our once fairly peaceful street.

As a parental taxi service for two high school children I now find that if

I use the car at all it is impossible to find a parking space anywhere near my home. I can only imagine the problems this causes mothers with younger children who I see struggling down the road with babies, toddlers and bags of shopping, or elderly people who have difficulties walking any great distance and rely on their cars to get out.

I have lived in Ealing for some 20 years and I have unhappily witnessed the inevitable impact of the introduction of CPZs around this area, as the traffic problem is simply shifted from one set of streets to another. It does not address the fundamental problems of high car ownership and commuter parking, particularly not when introduced on such a piecemeal basis.

Also, in an apparent desire for neatness, we have ended up with CPZs that include substantial stretches of road where almost all houses have off-street parking and there is little need for parking restrictions to assist local residents. In the case of the Ealing Dean zone, while cars continually cruise our street for parking throughout the day, great stretches of road inside the CPZ are deserted.

What is particularly galling about the Ealing Dean CPZ is that the area covered by the new zone is not the area we thought we were originally being consulted about. Some streets - and in our case parts of streets - included in the 'core area of parking concern' have been omitted from the new zone in an ill-thought-out response to the consultation process. Had I known this was at all likely it would have altered my opinion of the CPZ.

I was not originally convinced of the need for it, but the impact of the introduction of a CPZ-lite has made life dreadful and I have reluctantly concluded the only solution is an extension of the zone as soon as possible.

JULIE HADWIN

W13 resident