I too find it's now harder to park near to home rather than easier. During the day it's not too bad, but at night I find it terribly difficult and am forced to drive round and round and negotiate the dreadful one way systems which adds many minutes to the search - so not good for pollution and the environment.

I also bemoan the loss of the single yellow lines in Foundry Street, which used to make it easier at weekends and at night to find a space at least. These have now been replaced with double yellow lines. The parking authority tells me the reason is as follows (my own comments are in square brackets):

"The changes to yellow line restrictions were part of the Central Brighton Parking Review which increased the number of parking bays available for residents in Area Y to park all day from 740 to 1375." [How changing single yellow lines to double yellows creates new spaces is beyond me. I would have thought getting rid of the single yellows would rather have created new spaces.]

"The new underlying waiting restriction introduced was 'No waiting at any time' to introduce consistency with all the other parking zones." [Is that a good enough reason?]

"During the detailed design and implementation phase, sections of single yellow line were individually assessed to determine the appropriate course of action. They were retained only where there was no likelihood of obstruction. In other locations they were converted to parking bays." [I'm not sure here what they mean by 'obstruction', nor why they chose not to convert them to parking bays.]

"As you correctly point out, on the east side of Foundry Street there have always been double yellow lines. On the west side at the bottom there are a number of dropped kerbs between North Road and the beginning of the parking bays with only small gaps between and double yellow lines are the most appropriate restriction." [This is ludicrous as it's a one way street, with three car lengths between the dropped curbs, which are there for garages. They have also seen fit to remove a marked parking bay during this process.]

I find the whole situation absurd and their letter does nothing to reassure me that they applied rational thought to the process. Especially as the parking office is on the corner, surrounded by double yellow lines, and the queue of traders and their vans parked up on the double yellows first thing in the morning does nothing to ease congestion or obstruction in what is a busy street much used by Post Office vans.

[Previously published in the North Laine Runner, no 193, July/August 2008]

Jackie Fuller takes us to task above for saying that we did not think the new traffic system had produced the disastrous effect we expected.

We stand by our comment. In our two streets we expected commuters from further out to park here all day close to the station. This has not happened. In fact there are sometimes more spaces during the day than before the new scheme came into force. The spaces may not be immediately outside our front doors but we don't have to walk very far.

Parking in the evening is still almost impossible but this is no different to how it was before the new scheme. Parking after 8pm is a free-for-all and this will always cause problems for those who return from work after 8pm. Earlier in the evening has always been difficult due to the fact that the Council issues far more permits than there are spaces.

[Previously published in the North Laine Runner, no 193, July/August 2008]

The change in parking arrangements in the North Laine has made gaining a parking spot much more difficult, whether day, night or evening. I often have to park by the old library or on the loading bays to wait for a spot in the morning before 9am. I don't see the benefit of the expanded area reducing parking opportunities for local residents by my house due to increasing the number of potential users from a much wider area.

Indeed, the redrawn boundaries and the modification to the zone has also eliminated some parking opportunities only two streets away. It is noticeable on an evening that people from the extended area drive to the North Laine and park here whereas previously they would have had to use one of the many car parks. (This is more obvious post 10/11pm when a few spaces suddenly appear.)

To compound the lack of parking spaces, parking enforcement patrols appear to knock off early evening (except by call out!) and fail to enforce even double yellow parking. A notable case in point, and definitely an accident waiting to happen, is the parking on the pavement by and/or outside of the pizza place on the dangerous Blackman Street/Trafalgar Street T-junction. This happens so often it can't only be customers 'waiting' for their takeaways but also staff. The street is already narrow and difficult to navigate so blocking the view of oncoming traffic around the T-junction can only lead to accidents. This is a particularly worrying lack of enforcement.

[Previously published in the North Laine Runner, no 193, July/August 2008]

Since the introduction of the new parking scheme and the associated changes to the yellow lining of some of the streets in the North Laine, parking has become at times not merely difficult but impossible to achieve legally.

My place of work is not served by public transport so I have no choice but to drive - nor given the hours at which I have to travel would I be willing to use public transport, but that is another story.

On four evenings a week I get home from work at 9.30 pm and on Sundays at 6.30pm - nearer 7pm in the summer because of the traffic congestion caused by the Council's reduction from two lanes to one of the London Road all the way from St Peter's to the roundabout in Patcham - again, another story. By then, weekdays and Sundays, all the residents' bays are occupied. In addition, there is no space available on single yellow lines, where a vehicle may be parked legally until the following morning, by which time a resident's bay is to be found vacated by a morning commuter.

Until the revision of the parking arrangements, it was always possible to leave the car on a single yellow line until the morning, when somebody who worked more conventional hours would have left for work and I could re-park.

Now a lot of the single yellows have been doubled. I regularly do four or fine circuits of the area, wasting precious petrol and adding to the exhaust fumes in the area and can find nowhere at all legal that I can leave the car within reasonable walking distance of my house. Councilllor Ian Davey responded to my plea for help and contacted the Council. They came to look at my street but refused to re-instate the two/three additional spaces we had before the changes (although the road is the same width where they were before as it is where we do have our half dozen spaces) and refused to change the double yellow lines on one side of the road back to single yellows.

As I said in my reply to Ian's email outlining his efforts on our behalf, grateful though I am for his support the impasse remains.  Am I, and others maybe in a similar position, expected to drive around all night until somebody moves away and a resident's bay becomes available? I deeply resent paying for a permit but being unable to park legally.

[Previously published in the North Laine Runner, no 193, Jul/August 2008]