Councillors should consider all park users

Re: “Victoria ponders later wakeup call for park campers,” Nov. 7.

Councillors Ben Isitt and Jeremy Loveday appear once again to be ignoring the main users of our parks in Victoria — the people who pay the taxes to maintain them and their children. Instead, they want to focus their efforts on the homeless who camp there and how inconvenienced they are with the city bylaw saying they must wake up and vacate the park by 7 a.m.

City residents who work, so that we can afford the parks (and salaries of the councillors), wake before 7 a.m. and might like to visit one of our parks with their children before going to school. Weekends are also a good time for earlymorning visits to our parks.

If this bylaw is amended so that the campers are not disturbed before 9 a.m., I guess that means we should wait until after 9 a.m. as well. Heavens, we wouldn’t want to disturb campers from their slumber with the sounds of kids laughing and enjoying the park!

The sight of campers breaking camp and using our park as their washroom means most people would rather wait until after 9 a.m. to take children to the park anyway.

When will the councillors wake up and realize that residents of Victoria are also park users and perhaps they should consider the inconvenience to residents as well as the campers? Jeff Smith Victoria