I HAVE been a resident of Queen Street, Lydney, for 11 years and I love my home, but parking here has always been a day-to-day struggle. I don't know if any other residential area in the Forest is going to be hit as hard as Queen Street, if parking charges come into force in July.

The street was never really made for cars and now nearly everyone who lives here has one, or more. There must be nearly 60 houses in the street, with parking space for around 35 cars.

I wrote to the council highlighting the problems that we have always had to deal with here and asked what we are supposed to do in the future. I received what seems to be the standard reply, that didn't answer any of my questions. Alan Preest kindly aired the information in the Review last week, where it stated that permits were available at the cost of £50 per year to allow overnight parking in the main town car park. What happens during the daytime, when we have nowhere to park?

If you get home from work any time after 5.30pm in the week, or at any time on the weekend, you almost certainly will be unable to park. The street is normally overflowing by then. There is no choice other than to go back down the road and park in the main car park in town, or possibly on another road. At any given time and especially in the evening, you will find an overflow of at least 20 plus cars in the car park, where the charges are being proposed.

Cars are a huge investment, so having to park them so far away from your home, for any length of time, has always been a big enough worry in itself. Unfortunately, living in Queen Street, it is forced upon you. Houses are also a huge investment and the value of our homes is going to drop considerably.?It is completely unfair.

I am a single person living with my son, who also has a car. I own my own home and I pay £1,419 a year council tax. Have I got to find even more money to pay for us to park our cars in the car park, where charges are going to be levied?

If the charges come into force, we will also have to contend with the general public who, understandably, will want to avoid paying to park in Lydney, so will be trying to park in side streets such as Queen Street, for free. We will not only be fighting for spaces between ourselves, but with them as well.

What are we supposed to do?

Firstly say thank-you to all the people involved in voting for the installation of car parking charges I guess, even though nearly everyone else is against it. They are: Norman Stephens, Roger Yeates, Jim?Connell,?Gethyn?Davies, Brian Jones, Brian Edwards, James Bevan, Judy Davis, Frankie Evans, Carole Allaway Martin, Marilyn Smart, Len Lawton, Peter Ede, Marion Winship, Arthur Thomas, Terry Glastonbury, Terry Hale, Diana Edwards, Martin Quaile, Patrick Moly­neux, Brian Robinson, Jane Horne.

I don't know who any of you are, but you have all helped in the process of making our lives even more difficult than they already are.

I'm sure you all have your own driveways. Maybe we could come and park there.

– Name and address supplied.