CAR parking throughout the city of Southampton, like most British cities, has been a problem for many years and we expect our councillors to do their best to alleviate the situation when and where possible.

However, when it comes to parking on the city boundaries where one would expect there to be no problem I would query as to why the city fathers appear to go out of their way to make parking situations worse than they need be!

I refer in this particular case to the end of Test Lane at the entrance to the Lower Test Valley Nature Reserve.

At this point there has always been (and still is) a convenient pull-in, a gravelled slope leading to a pedestrian crossing of the railway track into the reserve.

On my visit there on March 27 a young man was in the process of installing steel gate posts, he informed me that he was doing so on the orders of Southampton council.

This is obviously with the intention of preventing drivers from parking when visiting the reserve.

Motorists will in the future have two choices, the first will be to use the B&Q car park (if allowed to do so) then to negotiate on foot the busy roundabout adjacent to and between the M271 Motorway and the Nursling Trading Estate.

The second option will be to park along the verges or on Test Lane itself which in my view will make this area a pretty dangerous place.

There is, of course, a third option, not to go there at all, not to visit the reserve, stay away, thank you Southampton council for your very forward thinking and encroachment into the countryside and leisure outlets, are you sure it's not a toll-gate, what an excellent idea!

L A O'BEE, Lordswood, Southampton.