I was shocked to see Preston Park Avenue in Brighton is due to get a residents’ parking scheme (The Argus, August 4).

I hope it is not too late to reconsider as this is not a typical residential road. It is reasonable for people to have and pay for residents’ parking if they want it but Preston Park Avenue is different altogether.

Were park users asked for their opinion? The park is a city-wide facility, not the property of those who live by it. Access to the park should be as free and unfettered as possible.

Spending time in the park is valuable to people like myself who live cooped up in a flat. There are also all the parents and children who use it. Children do not get enough chances to play outside these days as parents are busy and time is short.

Preston Park is Brighton’s flagship park. The biggest and the best in many ways, especially for sport. It is a shared resource for the whole city.

Open spaces are few and far between – and cars are inevitable – but the more people that use parks the better.

People need to fit exercise and relaxation into their lives and they may travel some distance to get there.

I know Preston Park Avenue has suffered from travellers’ vans for some years and the situation needs to be changed but if that is the problem, why is everyone else being penalised? Whatever the problem, residents’ parking is not the solution.

Travellers’ vans would move on if parking were banned for an hour a day or restricted to a maximum of four hours a day.

Residents should not be able to commandeer access to the park. It is similar to living near a school where residents must expect parent and child traffic.

Co-opting the road in this way could be the thin end of the wedge. It could mean that, in the future, areas of the park itself may have to be turned into a car park.

Roger Milner
Preston Park Avenue, Brighton