Move along please!

I had to be a "traffic warden" this evening!......

I collected my Mum early this evening to go to a carol service at our church, and with it being a bit of a foggy evening left early to give us plenty of time so got to the church about 6.05 p.m On approaching the road to turn down into the church car park, it looked to be blocked by an enormous, and I do mean enormous, lorry.

Turning in, I found there was just room for me to squeeze my little car past it. We drove onto the car park and sat there for several minutes and although the lorry had a few lights on, it didn`t show any signs of moving. So, I thought, I`ll go and put the church lights on to show we`re using the church and need the road clear. Having done that, the lorry began to move.... good I thought, he`s going.

But he didn`t he just shifted a few inches nearer the kerb. Then stopped the engine and put the lights out.

So, I plucked up my courage and went out and over to him - it was an enormous vehicle stretching over half the length of the road opposite the church door, and the bottom of his window was above my head height. Anyway, he put the window down when I went over to it. "You`re not going to be stopping there all evening are you?" I asked him "only we`ve a carol service on and they`ll be lots of cars needing to get up and down here". "Yes, I was going to", he said!

He was very polite and reasonable though and said that he`d take it along the road, there is a parking place along there isn`t there, he asked. To which I replied yes, there is a car park very near, [I don`t know why he didn`t go there in the first place!] I said, "you can come back after 9.30 with it if you want, we`ll be gone by then", or, park it and come back to the carol service!

I know it is a public road, and we can`t stop anyone parking there, but I thought I`d better try and do something about it.

Parking Problems

Grrrr..... I`m not very happy with the Council this week!

For a number of years now, I`ve found it easiest to buy a yearly long stay season ticket for the car parks in this area. This enables me to park all day on one very near where I work, as well as on others in the town and other towns in the locality. And so was great value for money. I could stay all day, or use it just to pop into a town for a short few minutes to nip and do a bit of shopping, walk along the promenade, or anything else I needed to do in various places.

Leaving off work this Monday, I approach my car and find a big leaflet and a piece of white paper stuck under my windscreen wiper. (how I hate people who stick adverts etc under car wipers on car parks!). Anyway, I just glanced at this, about to throw it in the bin, when I saw something written on it in biro. It said "Your parking permit is not valid". I read it again, but I knew the permit was in date, I`d only got it in January. So I unfolded the white sheet of paper and discovered that it was a letter.

Apparently the Council 'in their wisdom' have decreed that this car park should be for short stay only, no more than three hours. Why? so that shoppers and visitors can park there. No consideration for those who work in the shops and offices, they now have to park on the long stay car park which is further out of town. Not too bad in good weather, but in rain, wind, or with heavy shopping or items for work, workers need the convenience of a handy car park as well as others.

So, that leaves me with a dilemna... with my long stay ticket (and being told its not valid on that car park, nor on similiar ones in other towns that I use), what happens when I only want to stay less than 3 hours. Have I got to pay again, or pay out to get an annual Short Stay ticket too, which would be grossly unfair. (I`ve emailed them to ask if they provide time indicators in the way that they do for disabled people or the short stay tickets.... but the automatic reply to the email says that my query will be dealt with by 16th. April!)
I feel like parking on the car park and sticking a note beside the permit, saying I`ll be back in xxx minutes, but I`m afraid if I do, and they won`t accept that and I`ll get a parking fine, and that would make it even more expensive to park.

Anyone any ideas on this?