FOR many years I have seen and personally experienced the best and worst in driver’s responses to problems with passing vehicles on Castle Road at Kendal.

Some drivers are courteous, some are grudgingly accepting, some are impatient, downright belligerent or un-necessarily verbally aggressive to those caught in an unavoidable situation of not being able to pull out of the way at their command.

Luckily the drivers of the No 42 bus are able to stand their ground and move forward, but other drivers need to find a place to pull in and allow the vehicles with the legitimate right of way to come through. Quite often this means reversing and by this time other cars have followed on behind and you end up with a crocodile of cars looking for a refuge in reverse gear.

With the ever-growing number of residents’ cars on Castle Road driving without having to pull-in to the kerb at some point is becoming almost impossible at times. Refuse collection days are a nightmare!

There is also a similar and growing problem on Castle Grove and this is where the more thoughtful and courteous drivers deserve thanking.

The route through the Castle estate has now become a rat-run, a popular short cut from Parkside Road to Sedbergh Road, I have moaned to Cumbria County Council about this fact, but never really expected positive action. Now we have a proposal from the Highways Authority to reduce the speed limit and create no-waiting and restricted parking areas on the estate. This is fantastic news, thank you for listening.

It is good the problems are at last being addressed, but my personal view is that the bullies and the anti-social drivers will still rule the roost because the proposed passing places will be limited. The problem will be reduced but not eradicated. There is also going to be a backlash from those residents losing spaces near to their homes, although some of these are often taken by town workers during the day.

In my view the only successful solution is to make Castle Grove and Castle Road into one-way streets all the way to Castle Park, following the bus route. Residents will then be able to park on one side of the road as they do now but with the addition of double yellow lines the possibility of traffic coming the other way is totally eliminated, no conflicts.

We will all need to plan and rethink our journey onto and through the estate but this will add about a minute on to most journey times, depending where you live. Is that not worth it? We may only get this one opportunity to try it.

I would urge people to attend the public meeting at Netherfield Cricket Club, Tuesday, October 2, from 3.30pm to 7pm, look at their proposal and express your own thoughts to county council officers.

Roy Wilcock

Kendal