COMEYTROWE and other suburban communities such as Sherford around the centre of Taunton have been plagued by commuter parking for many years and the situation is growing worse.

Together with my fellow local councillors for Comeytrowe, Simon Nicholls and Habib Farbahi, I am as "Fed Up" as the local resident who used that name in last week's Gazette to complain about the delay in the next tranche of parking restrictions for Comeytrowe.

We have been campaigning for years to secure a "Resident-Friendly Parking Policy" which puts the needs of local residents before the convenience of commuters and addresses the problems of wider areas including the 'displacement' of cars banned in one street onto neighbouring residential roads.

Working with Comeytrowe Parish Council and after surveys of local residents, we have pressed Somerset County Highways to deal with these problems and we were promised action last year.

READ MORE: LETTER: 'When is the council going to sort College Way parking?'

READ MORE: Plan to remove commuter cars from College Way in Taunton

I hope residents will not blame Highways officers who are working on these plans.

The delays are down to the Conservative leadership of the county council, whose year-on-year cuts have made it increasingly difficult for officers who are swamped with valid demands.

In our experience even the simplest of parking restrictions can take well over a year before the yellow lines are painted on the road.

We have passed on the very helpful comments of local residents who have responded to our surveys and we encourage residents to write to Somerset County Council now to say what they want County Highways to do.

ALAN WEDDERKOPP

Liberal Democrat County Councillor for Comeytrowe, Wilton, Sherford and Trull