Deal with parking problems now

I agree with the sentiments expressed in the editor’s comment column in last Friday’s Observer (November 11, 2016) that the parking problems blighting Stirling city centre and other towns in the area need to be resolved as a matter of urgency.

Unless that happens, the problem we have at the moment with people parking across pavements and pathways will continue.

And it makes you wonder whether urban footways are able to bear the weight of vehicles without suffering permanent damage to the foundations.

In the past many of the pavements suffered from cracked slabs. Surely people’s weight could not cause this?

So let us hope that the foundations of pavements are nowadays more substantial than they were in the past.

I can only hope that the newly laid and widened pavements in Stirling city centre, near the Baptist Church, will not be used by selfish drivers of cars and heavy vehicles for short-term parking, or a quick visit to a bank or shop.

In my view, anyone leaving their car parked on the pavement with the engine running while popping to the ATM deserves to have it driven away by the neighbourhood joyriders.

John Allen, Stirling, By email

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