Re: new Canadian High Commission parking problems

B>THE EDITOR, Madam:

The new Canadian High Commission at 3 West Kings House Road, South East corner of Waterloo Road and West Kings House Road, opened its doors to the Jamaica public on Monday, October 25, 1999.

I understand that the new High Commission does not provide parking for Jamaicans applying for visas. The new High Commission does not provide parking for its Jamaican citizen staff. Arrangements have been made with the nearby Terra Nova Hotel for twenty parking spaces for Jamaican staff only.

It is the policy of the Canadian government throughout the world to provide "no visitor" parking at its High Commissions. But what effect does this have on the surrounding neighbours and their quality of life? Fortunately the volume of visitor traffic at the Canadian High Commission is much less than that at the visa section of the U.S. Embassy at 16 Oxford Road, so the neighbours have been spared this worst-case scenario of urban blight.

Instead the people who live in the apartments and houses along West Kings House Road opposite and adjacent the High Commission have visitors' cars and taxis parking on the grass sidewalk/roadside verge and along the kerb in front of their homes despite yellow kerb "no parking" designation. Is this acceptable? Would any of us want to be in this situation? They are now experiencing what the remaining residents of Richmond Park and Eastwood Park Gardens have been battling for decades - the effects of "commercialisation" and the resultant steady erosion of their quality of life.

What can the municipal authority, the KSAC, do to ameliorate this situation which has been thrust upon these taxpayers by the arrival of the Canadian High Commission on their doorstep. The national policy of Canada regarding "no parking" has been respected and approved by the local Building Authority the KSAC.

There is however something that government can do to return the street and sidewalk to the residents and remove the intrusion of the daily parking visitors. I refer to the development of the vacant lot on the north-west corner of the intersection of Waterloo and West Kings House Road known as the "Cholera Cemetery". The site, regraded and levelled, could provide adequate parking for the nearby High Commission and in addition be developed as neighbourhood recreational facilities or a maintained landscape space, instead of being a home for advertising billboards.

Is it too much to ask that Jamaican visitors to the High Commission be disciplined and park at that parking lot and walk a short distance using the traffic light intersection pedestrian crossings to the Visa Entrance on West Kings House Road; thereby showing respect and consideration for the rights and welfare of the residents?

Could the responsible authority give consideration to this proposal which would add to the urban fabric and help eliminate an untenable situation? The residents are waiting.

I am, etc.,

CHRISTOPHER LUE, Architect, Kingston 10

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