Board members so inflexible

MY daughter is a primary student at the Diocesan Girls' School and is driven to school by car.

Although some congestion was caused by cars, it was only during two 30-minute periods (arrival and departure). Now double yellow lines have been painted in front of the school.

Many of these young students live in areas without access to school buses or the MTR. Mothers now drive their daughters to Yau Ma Tei, and anxiously leave them to walk the rest of the way.

Jordan Road east bound has a third lane, the closest to the pavement, terminating at a plantation bed at one end of the school. Under the new parking regulations this inside lane is totally unused. The Parents' Association proposed that the double lines be moved to the outside boundary of this lane, allowing dropping off and picking up, but avoiding the previous parking chaos. The Transport, Police and Urban Services departments, agreed the proposal was worth trying.

The local district board's chairman and vice-chairman sympathised. However the board's eight directly elected members voted it down on the grounds that - it was difficult to sympathise with a private primary school, which did not favour neighbourhood children; there are more motorists using Jordan Road than students being dropped off, therefore the majority should be catered for; it is a good way to get students to use school buses and public transport.

Surely it is the duty of our elected representatives to show a willingness to make decisions not just based upon the majority wishes of their limited constituency, but on their own conscience as well, so that the minority interests will not disappear altogether.

MICHAEL TIEN PUK-SUN New Territories