We must have a parking solution

Alan Foxon’s letter (No parking common sense, KE February 4) hits almost every nail on the head!

Ashford Borough Council’s Planning and Highways teams continually fail to serve Ashford residents well and just add to the problems the town faces all the time.

They actually make things worse by their actions.

The planners fail to ensure there is adequate employee parking at every new development.

A prime example is the William Harvey Hospital which has expanded to have 3,000 staff but it has only 1,300 staff parking places.

This error looks to be repeated at the new junction 10A warehouse development.

Residential areas near industrial estates suffer from employees using roads as free car parks affecting access and residents’ lives daily.

Lorries continue to clog up residential streets even after ABC started to issue tickets and clamp the occasional vehicle.

Parking prices in the town centre, plus the huge number of double yellow lines, have made the town a no-go area for shoppers.

If making customers pay for parking was a good idea Tesco and B&Q would have done it years ago.

Something has to be done. ABC needs to completely change its policies regarding car park planning, parking charges, lorry parking, and enforcement otherwise the ever expanding town and suburbs will become one of the worst places to live in. Contrast this to Washington in the USA.

They built a new metro line and every