WHAT stuff and nonsense are these controlled parking zones (CPZs). Wishing to attend a funeral at St Mary's Church South Ealing, I pondered on how best to get there from my home in Hanwell, a distance of exactly one-and-a-half miles.

Not being in the first flush of youth, I ruled out walking. I could take an E8 bus to Boston Manor Station, which may entail a 20-minute wait, then a Tube to South Ealing Station (another 20-minute wait).

Of course, with luck on one's side both bus and train could entail no wait, if the transport arrives after a minute or two. From experience, that is unlikely.

I decide to drive. Around that general area of South Ealing are CPZs with streets deserted during the day by residents who have gone to their place of work, by car.

Where the CPZs end, vehicles are free to park, hence creating street after street of cars parked bumper to bumper. Any resident returning home with shopping would be unable to park anywhere near their own house.

Controlled parking zones only serve to displace cars to other streets without zones. I understand residents who live in CPZs pay a free that entitles them to a space anywhere within the zone.

The street on which I live is not in a CPZ, but parking is problematical, not during the day, but towards evening, when residents start to return home.

Is it becoming a status symbol to live in a CPZ, thus ensuring a place in the street when returning home from work to a street that is deserted during the day. What is the logic behind this, and who gains?

By the time I had driven round and round looking for a space in South Ealing, I wondered why I had set off from home by car. But I did wish to pay my respects to one of Ealing's long-time residents, who gave freely of his time to others, and asked for little in return.

VALERIE GROSE Hanwell