The County Council has come up with a plan to deal with the parking problems that I have been raising. The problem is that students from Faulkner Eggington Hall in the University use Outwoods Drive as a long term car park, thus avoiding the £120 a year charge that would be levied if they parked in the University. This causes serious problems for residents, many minor accidents and destroys the character of the street during term time. A local resident who frequently has her drive blocked said "students have told us over the years that they feel as you say--why pay for parking that they can have conveniently nearby for free?" The University have written to students asking them not to park in the road, to no effect, and has refused to take measures to ban students from using the road as a car park.

The County Council has produced a scheme, now out for consultation which includes double yellow lines on the corners of Outwoods Drive and Forest Road (where police already take action on cars causing obstruction). This will help to prevent parking on the first 10 metres of the road, where no cars normally park.

A much more significant part of the scheme is to ban parking along the whole of the east side of Forest Road from Epinal Way to the Post Office, except for a section outside a house where there used to be an invalid who left five years ago.

At the moment, as the photographs show, there is no parking on that section of Forest Road, but the double yellow lines will ....?

The County Council scheme does not include any measures to deal with student cars in Outwoods drive because "The situation is exacerbated by a higher than average number of vehicles per property due to shared accommodation arrangements within the area" (which will be news to residents). "and the introduction of restrictions would displace parking within the wider area, and potentially increase traffic volumes and speeds along Outwoods Drive." Some residents however believe that parking restrictions might reduce accidents and allow traffic to move more freely.

The plan now out for consultation has been prompted by the concerns of residents in Outwoods Drive, who will be surprised to see that it has resulted in a ban on parking on Forest Road.

The designation of parking restrictions is not a matter for Charnwood Borough Council. It is a County Council responsibility. This scheme has been approved by the local County Councillor. I have sent in written objections.

The photo shows a very common situation; cars parked on both sides of the road allowiing only one lane for traffic. This often fills with cars waiting to join Forest Road, completely blocking access for cars want ing to turn into Outwoods Drive.

The Highways Forum set up a working group which met and I thought I thought that we would see the end of this problem soon, but sadly, nothing is happening. A County Council representative attended and agreed that parking restrictions could solve the problem. But nothing has happened.

Perhaps we will have further offers to do something at the next meeting of the working group. Perhaps!

A major concern since I became a Councillor has been the problem of traffic congestion at the junction of Outwoods Drive and Forest Road.

Parking on both sides of Outwoods Drive, close to the junctions does not leave room for two way traffic. If there are vehicles waiting to join Forest Road there is not enough room for vehicles to enter Outwoods Drive from Forest Road.

This often leads to traffic having to back onto the major road.

I have been working with residents and other councillors to institute some parking restrictions and we have now established a working party to produce firm proposals which we hope to see implemented.