Another blow against the law-abiding citizen

It is said that the average citizen in the UK is caught on CCTV cameras 300 times a day. It was therefore regrettable that, following a pretty unpleasant attempted sexual assault on my partner after dark in February of this year (fortunately, a suitably violent response was forthcoming from my girlfriend and she was able to break free and run for help), a purported review of CCTV footage by the police apparently disclosed nothing that could help identify the offender.

Since this incident, I have made it my habit to pick her up in the car after work on the one night a week when she works late. Unsurprisingly, she has reservations about walking the streets of London alone after dark. In the light of this, I can’t help thinking that it is also regrettable that I have started to receive penalty charge notices from a certain London local council for “parking in a parking place not designated for that class of vehicle”. It appears that while pulling–in at the side of the road at ten o’clock at night to pick up my girlfriend, I have been inadvertently straying into a “designated coach parking area”.

But how did the local council conclude this? No traffic warden ever saw me to give me a ticket; I wasn’t stopped for long enough. And even a traffic warden wouldn’t be so anal as to give me a ticket just for picking someone up — it’s not like it was in the fast lane of the M25 or something. It turns out that one of their officers (presumably employed full–time for the purpose) has been reviewing fecking CCTV footage from a traffic monitor camera and has spotted the encroachment into prohibited territory. Now that the system has caught up with me, the tickets will presumably continue to filter through, one for each week I’ve picked her up since February (I’ve had two so far). £50 per ticket if I cough–up without a fight, with the usual sanction of being charged double if I don’t pay immediately, contest it and lose.

Ever have the feeling that something in this country has gone arse about face?