In the ongoing fight against the controlled parking zone (CPZ) in West Harrow, Councillor Susan Hall was quoted as saying: “I suspect the reason some people don’t want a CPZ is because they don’t want to suffer what those who want a CPZ are suffering at the moment”.

So what have Susan Hall and the Conservative group come up with to ease the suffering of two or three roads where there is a problem?

Do they turn some wasteland into a car park? No. Do they offer a scheme like they have in neighbouring boroughs where the first permit is free? No. Do they allow the introduction of a one-way system? No. In fact, do they take up any of the alternative suggestions made by residents? No.

Their excuse is we do not have the money. Instead they are trying to bring in a CPZ scheme that will cost £46 a year for the first car (more for any further cars) and make the whole of West Harrow suffer from displacement parking.

In effect, by introducing this CPZ they are planning to make us all suffer the way the two or three roads are, unfortunately, suffering.

And, in addition to this, we will also have to pay their residents’ parking permit “stealth tax”, which is how Harrow Council made £8.5m last year from parking control and parking services.

With almost £2m of the surplus (don’t they mean profit?) going back into the “installation of controlled parking zones” and the “design and implementation of traffic management schemes”, basically this money is being used to develop more ways to get more money out of us.

I just hope the 1,000-plus residents who signed our petition, plus the people who didn’t but who will end up being hugely inconvenienced by the CPZ in West Harrow, remember who is making us all suffer next May when election time comes around. By then, probably a lot more residents will be suffering because of the way the Conservatives are introducing these stealth tax CPZs all over Harrow.

B Jackson, Marshall Close, Harrow