The Car-Parking Controversy Mr. Hore-Belisha appears to have no one
but himself to thank for the construction that was put on the words he was reported as having used at the annual dinner of the Institution of Chartered Surveyors on March 2nd. According to The Times he then said : " I shall consider fixing a date after which the leaving of cars in streets, except for the immediate purposes of taking up and setting down at houses or shops, will be prohibited." The voluminous assurances he has since given that he has no thought of " driving the private car off the streets " seem to imply that consideration is not necessarily a prelude to action. If so, all is well. If there were any real intention to " prohibit the leaving of cars in streets," it would be very far from well. For this is essentially a matter where the sensible rule, live and let live, should prevail. It is an immense convenience to owner- drivers, who are today poor men as well as rich, to use their cars in London and leave them somewhere at hand while they lunch or pay a call. When that inconveniences no one else, why interfere ? When it does, it must be stopped. In many narrow streets parking causes obvious obstruction ; in many broad ones it causes none. The police must use their judgement; there can be no cast-iron rule ; to make one, and apply it with unintelligent uniformity, would be to inflict a vast amount of quite needless inconvenience.
Previous page
