The Editor, Sir:

The mayor of Kingston Desmond McKenzie must be commended for his efforts to bring some semblance of order to the Kingston metropolis and especially the flow of traffic on our streets. But even as motorists must dig deep in their pockets to pay for breaches of the road traffic law the insufficiency of parking space in a bustling New Kingston should temper the heavy hand of the mayor and his representatives.

A case study: the Kingston and St Andrew Corporation (KSAC)-employed wrecker service towed a car parked in the space for disabled drivers at Emancipation Park without checking if the owner was indeed a disabled person. Finding the car missing, he was about to call the police when one of the taxi drivers who occupy some of the parking spaces along the NHT corridor advised that the car had been towed by the KSAC and instantly offered to take the motorist downtown Kingston for $500 to retrieve his vehicle.

Why are the taxis allowed to occupy the customer's legitimate parking spaces forcing motorists to park illegally? How did the half asleep taxi man know exactly where the car was taken? Did the taxi driver actually summon the wrecker and was there complicity between wrecker and taxi?

Without the taxi driver, how would the motorist who lives outside of Kingston know where to locate his impounded car? The cost of retrieving the car from the KSAC pound was $ 3,500 for the KSAC, $4,000 for the private wrecker and $500 for taxi fare.

Mr Mayor, why should the bulk of the fine go to a private wrecking service? This motorist would rather that $7,500 go into the coffers of the KSAC than to some private entity that is not gazetted to exact and collect fines. Why not use a clamp system as is successfully employed in the town of Mandeville where the motorist finds his car where he left it albeit with a traffic ticket? That is a more humane system than not knowing whether it is the KSAC or thieves who have removed the vehicle.

Horrible sanitary conveniences

Parking, like the absence of public sanitary conveniences, is horrible in New Kingston where the KSAC's parking facilities are overrun by touts who will either 'watch' or wash your vehicle while you are in a paid parking lot.

Mr Mayor, many in Kingston are flocking the walking track at Emancipation Park as it is one of the few safe areas in the city where one can exercise at nightfall. This accounts for the large number of motor cars that the KSAC either ticketed or impound last Monday night. The NHT is closed at night-time, thus there is no obstruction of vehicular traffic, so please, Mr Mayor, give us a break.

I am, etc.,

CLAUDE WILSON

jaclaudew@yahoo.com