LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Restrictions and chicanes Dear Sir – In response to the letters that ap- peared in your paper from Ms. Jung and John Critchell, I felt as I too live in Tudor Avenue, I would like to have my say. Firstly, and with the greatest respect, I be- lieve John Critchell lives in a part of Tudor Avenue where these parked vehicles do not directly affect him getting out and into his driveway as he has a single yellow line out- side his property. While I do agree with Ms. Jung in part, I
also agree with John Critchell. My front wall was one of those crashed into some time ago, and it has been hit again since. However, vehicles belonging to commuters, prison officers and shoppers are causing us a great deal of inconvenience and danger. These people park practically across our driveway on either side and are there from 6am until 7pm. Some vehicles have even been left for a week. As John Critchell says, Tudor Avenue is a
steep, windy, narrow road. Every single day we have difficulty getting our vehicles out of and into our driveway. While we are try- ing to manoeuvre in or out, cars come speeding up or down the road round the blind bend at the bottom. Then, of course, they have to brake hard to stopwhilewe are manoeuvring. I brace myself, because I feel one of these days one of our family will be hit.
Because Tudor Avenue is used as a rat
run, cars have no patience or consideration for residents of the road; their only quest is to beat the traffic along Sittingbourne Road. The other issue is the size of the vehicles using the road. Only last week my son and
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I had to undertake traffic duties as an artic- ulated lorry had got stuck up Tudor Avenue from the Aldi site. The lorry driver was not using a Satnav. We have been promised double yellow
lines for the dangerous corners and singles on the rest of the road. This was meant to be done in January 2011, but we were then told it was going to be January 2012. I don't think this is such a good idea be-
cause, as John Critchell says, the traffic will be able to speed even faster down and up the hill. A better option is to put in parking restrictions; for example, no parking be- tween 10am and noon. This would stop the commuters, prison officers and shoppers leaving their vehicles all day. Or why doesn't the highways department
build a couple of chicanes into the danger- ous parts? The very best option would be to close the road at one end, as John Critchell has suggested.
DianeWakeling, Tudor Avenue, Maidstone
Observing Highway Code Dear Sir – I am writing further to my letter printed in the January edition and Mr Critchell’s reply in February. I have every respect for his opinion but I
feel he is in the minority, considering the number of positive phone calls I have re- ceived and conversations with residents in Tudor Avenue I have exchanged since my letter was printed. I would like to draw Mr Critchell’s atten-
tion to the Highway Code from page 75, which explains that many parking regula- tions are contravened by the motorists park- ing in Tudor Avenue:
Do not park facing against the traffic flow (many do).
Do not park within 10m of a junction (as happens all the time at the junction of Nor- man Close).
Do not park near the brow of a hill (as hap- pens at the Sittingbourne Road turning into Tudor Avenue).
Do not park on a bend (as happens at the bottom of Tudor Avenue/Park Avenue). I hope this situation will be resolved in
the very near future before a serious acci- dent occurs.
Lynn Jung, Saxons Drive, Foley Park, Maidstone
Stumped by tree decision Dear Sir-Iwould like to add some comments to your story about Maidstone Borough Coun- cil’sdecision toplace a tree preservation order on a tree stump in our garden (Town, Christ- mas). As a council taxpayer, I would have thought
that in the present economic climate, Maid- stone would have better things on which to spend our money than preserving a tree stump. Whatever anyone’s views on whether or not the original tree should have been pre- served, the fact is that the tree did not have a protection order and so we were completely within our rights to cut itdown(whichwedid for safety issues). What is left is a stump, which at best will
grow back into a large unruly bush. Even the landscape officer acknowledges that “the stump of the tree may not be aesthetically pleasing to everyone”. At the planning meeting where this issue
was discussed, Cllr Tony Harwood stated that his telephone went insane on Saturday, Sep- tember 25, 2010when the treewas felled and that the duty officer was called out.
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