• CAMDEN Council are continually suspending large swathes of residents’ parking in Belsize Park, often for many days at a time.

They recently suspended the entirety of Belsize Park Gardens, first down one side and then immediately down the other side, for cabling. Similarly the entirety of Primrose Gardens.

I am advised by a resident of Primrose Gardens that even when the works were completed, G Network did not release the suspensions.

They are now proposing to suspend parking in two roads, Lambolle Place and Lambolle Road, for six days for “road works”. They have only just done this in Belsize Square.

Frequently during these suspensions there is no one to be seen working on the site. In addition to the suspensions for “road works” there are also daily suspensions for “domestic removal”, “tree works”, “lighting works” etc. It seems as if there is always some reason to suspend residents’ parking.

Although I appreciate that some of these works, for example cabling, are necessary, they also suspend parking for 24 hours for a domestic removal which takes approximately two hours.

Likewise “lighting works” and “tree works”, neither of which can be done after dark, also apparently require the bays to be suspended for 24 hours. This is entirely unnecessary.

These lengthy periods of suspension result in insufficient residents’ parking being available, making it extremely hard to find a “legal” parking space.

The council are only too quick to tow away any offending vehicle – at an extortionate cost. One could be forgiven for thinking that the continual suspensions are a deliberate ploy by the council to raise revenue by means of fines.

Given the high cost of purchasing residents’ parking, which we pay in addition to our council tax, it would not be unreasonable to request that when these suspensions are in place, residents are permitted to use the visitors’ parking spaces, for free.

This would be a simple measure to implement. They would only need to authorise resident parking permits to be used in visitor spaces when resident parking is suspended and no other parking can be found.

It would then be in the council’s interest to release resident spaces as soon as possible, so that they may continue to receive revenue from visitors.

It should be incumbent upon the council to ensure that when an application is made for a suspension, that such suspensions are authorised for the minimum time necessary, that works are carried out in a timely manner to minimise disruption, and that the contractors involved should be obliged to work every day, including weekends, and to remove the suspensions immediately when work is finished on any particular stretch of road, to release the parking spaces.

JACKIE FORREST, NW3