THE targeting of residents in St Leonard's Gardens for parking on pavements outside their homes is part of a worrying development throughout the central Hounslow area in the past few years.
St Leonard's, like other roads off Summerhouse Avenue, is the width of a car, so parking on the road is impossible.
Beaufort Gardens and Queens Gardens, both off Summerhouse, appear on a list of streets in which pavement parking is permitted.
However Victoria Gardens, like St Leonard's, does not.
Over a year ago, residents in the Hounslow Heath ward addressed the Central Hounslow area committee to complain about being targeted in a similar way to residents in St Leonard's after many years of trouble-free parking outside their homes.
In this case, officers were unable to explain why Wellington Avenue appears on a list of streets exempt from pavement parking enforcement while a number of other roads, with virtually identical characteristics, do not.
At the time I challenged the accuracy of the list of exempt roads, arguing that the pavement parking sub-committee of the council which had adjudicated on this matter in the 1980s had exempted far more roads than those listed.
I asked that the minutes of these meetings be recovered to check the list for accuracy.
Since then there has been a deafening silence from officers.
Is this incompetence or is the reality that their political masters are demanding that parking fine revenues be maximised at all costs?
Either way, the persecution of residents for parking sensibly outside their own homes must not be allowed to continue.
Many of our streets were built at a time when today's car numbers were unimaginable. Parking policies must be based on common sense, not highway robbery.
JOHN CONNELLY
Councillor Hounslow Heath ward
