Letters: Was dog walker's roadside parking verging on the ridiculous?

SIR - I had an interesting conversation with a fellow dog walker this week.

He had parked his car right by a Forestry England sign requesting that people did not park there and pointing out that there was an official car park a short distance along the road.

This man informed me that he had been parking on this verge for 40 years to walk his dogs and because there was some gravel there he counted it as a car park.

He also stated that he had no intention of changing his habits, in spite of the fact that this particular verge was obviously becoming seriously eroded.

He then went on to say that in his opinion it was the fault of the authorities because they should provide more and bigger car parks for people who wanted to walk their dogs in the Forest!

His arrogance astounded me; sadly a sign of the growing philosophy with some people that they should be allowed to do what they want, where they want and when they want.

As a fellow dog walker I have never experienced a problem in finding a permitted place to park.

It saddens me that some people would seek to desecrate the beautiful place that they purport to enjoy with such a selfish attitude.

I would be interested to hear other people’s opinion on this.

Mary Rutland, New Milton