I READ the articles about fire appliances unable to drive down streets because of cars parked on both sides of the road.

I witnessed the appliance attending Lansdowne Street fire, and noticed it was blocked only by a vehicle parked quite legally on the road.

After the incident, the appliance was able to drive between parked cars down the rest of Lansdowne Street and right along Cumberland Street because on both sides of the road car owners had parked illegally - that is, a few inches on the path.

In your report some time ago, the police were threatening to prosecute vehicle owners who park on the path. I think a compromise in this area could be a solution to this problem. First, most paths were built before cars to take dozens of persons, and are wider than necessary.

I know the city council could not afford to widen all the roads, but they could paint a green or blue line on the path, leaving a good three feet clear for pedestrians, but allowing cars to park only up to the coloured line on the path. The colour of the line could also show that it is resident parking only or parking for vehicles under a certain size.

Will the powers-that-be find it to difficult to implement this type of scheme? I do hope not, as the past solutions to this sort of problem have been to just ban parking there altogether, putting down yellow lines seriously inconveniencing locals and driving the problem somewhere else.

If a scheme which allows parking, but also allows emergency vehicles to pass cannot be implemented, then smaller fire appliances should be considered.

K J PORTER,

Barbourne, Worcester.