Sir, For years, residents of the Fellside/Greenside part of Kendal have found it difficult to park anywhere near their houses during the day because commuters park their cars in the area for the whole day while they are at work (Letters, April 18, Not enough car parking'). After a long and patient wait, a residents' parking scheme has been set up by Cumbria County Council and we are delighted.

We make the following points to your correspondent:

There is a train service from Windermere to Kendal.

There were notices published about the proposed parking scheme. Comments were invited.

When Kendal's economy has run down in the way suggested we look forward to coming to shop in a resurgent Windermere where we will park for nothing outside your correspondent's house.

They say there are empty places left by residents who have presumably departed for work for the day'. Retired residents of this area are now very happy to be able to find somewhere to park their cars during the day, something we have not been able to do for some time.

Up until now, we have been the ones who have had to park well away from our homes.

On the subject of a Park and Ride, we still have some very expensively produced leaflets outlining the last (aborted) plan.

You will probably remember that the plan was abandoned after a number of meetings (all costing money in attendance allowances and travel expenses) and the production and publication of all the expensive leaflets, when someone realised that the land by the quarry on which the car park was supposed to be built was not owned by the council nor could it be acquired.

Put another way, an awful lot of money was spent on planning a scheme which could not happen.

We believe that Park and Ride is the answer to a long-running problem, but the car park must be in the right place.

Solving Kendal's parking and transport problems is a matter of pressing importance which demands imagination and leadership from our councillors. Let us hope they will show the necessary sense of purpose.

Janet & Tim Hodgins

Kendal

April 25, 2003 12:30