Letter: Reflect carefully on traffic order plan for coast road

Readers will recall the ongoing outrage regarding the Traffic Road Order proposals associated with Marine Drive, Marine Drive East and Marine Drive West where Hampshire County Council are trying to introduce on-street parking charges under the veil of responding to residents’ complaints regarding the on-street parking of camper vans.

Those interested parties might wish to learn that following a recent Freedom of Information request to HCC they reveal their first consultation exercise received a total of 631 comments/objection representations. Of those, 11 were in support of the proposals and 620 were objections. The county council were also unable to advise how many complaints they received, or over what period, regarding camper van parking in these roads because they don’t retain that data.

I find it incredibly disingenuous of the county authority to still be considering this matter given the lack of evidence supporting the need for the TRO. I hope the county authority reflects on this carefully to avoid a judicial review. The lack of any public comment from our elected county councillors, Mel Kendall and Fran Carpenter, on this proposal is deafening. Given the feeling of the electorate, I should like to think they were actively engaged and representing their constituents in the public forum, not least with the county council elections looming in May.

Hopefully, the electorate will use their precious and democratic vote wisely when it comes around and only support those who actively work to the benefit of their constituency and ultimately deserve their vote.

Aaron Lawford

Barton