Marks Tey is a village dating back many centuries and, until the motor car came along, was possibly regarded as a peaceful haven.

Then, along came the A12 (said by planners at the time to be the road to end all roads) with all its requirements – i.e. slip roads, roundabouts and bridges.

These are things in modern- day living we have to accept. We’re told it’s all in the name of progress.

But, there are also things Marks Tey residents should not have to accept when shopping at their local shops.

I am talking about the employment by the borough council of two traffic wardens, armed with digital cameras and parking tickets, booking drivers for parking in a diagonal position (which has been allowed since time immemorial) as against parking in line with the flow of traffic.

Technically, the council and the highways authority are correct and the hardworking Marks Tey Parish Council has done its level best to co-operate with modern planning.

It has saved our local pharmacy and we now have traffic light-controlled level crossings, which stop us getting run over by the 30 or 40-tonne trucks that thunder through the village and, yes, locals have been granted a limited number of parking places at the newly-built supermarket.

As a local car driver, I can live with that, but what I can’t accept is the new parking arrangements. Our local shops are going to suffer.

T he shops in this parade rely on passing trade that the slip road onto the A12 presents.

However, the non-diagonal parking will have a big effect on trade and we don’t want to lose any of our shops, thank you.

To the council, I say: Let’s keep our diagonal parking. I know of no deaths from such parking, something the slip roads on and off the A12 can’t boast about.

If you don’t, I promise you there will be accidents, with an increased number of motorists performing Uturns and three-point turns all in front of oncoming traffic.

However, if you insist on the new layout, then use your traffic wardens to put parking fines on drivers of 30 or 40-tonne lorries, who face the right way but park half on the road and half on the pavement.

E S Parsons
Wilsons Lane
Marks Tey