Your report on parking problems in Selwood Drive (‘Motorists warned over parking outside homes’, Times Series, June 26) omits to mention that parking and traffic dominated the whole Chipping Barnet Area Forum where the matter was raised – and what’s more, always do dominate the forums.

The steam that was seen rising from my ears that evening was caused not by the meeting’s bad-tempered shambles – I’m used to that. What made me so angry is the crisis that is staring us full in the face – and which no one will name. So I’ll do it now: Barnet has a car crisis.

Selwood Drive’s motorists complained that housing had been built at the bottom of their road, increasing traffic, and so they parked their cars on the pavements. (Whereupon pedestrians complained their way was blocked.) But Barnet is due to have many more new builds. (60,000 new homes are planned, and population projections are for growth of about 50 per cent from 2001-2040.) Barnet grows richer; the corollary is ever more cars wanting to park and to drive. And the result is ever more fractious petitions to the Area Forum for more pedestrian crossings, 20mph zones, Controlled Parking Zones (CPZ), while parking has become the most poisonous political topic in the borough.

The piecemeal approach is already not working. Tempers are rising, and drivers, residents, and parents are shouting ever more loudly about their rights, which all conflict. We are in desperate need firstly of admitting that we have a car crisis that needs concerted action. Secondly, we need to agree what to do about it together. Whatever measures are taken, without the support of a critical mass of the people they affect, will fail.

AM Poppy

Barnet Green Party