NOTES FROM BIG BEN … A Curmudgeon in BY PETER GUEST J


VHTELLSME IAMA CURMUDG- eon. This surprises me, first of all because I don’t think I am, and second- ly, because I did not think John could do big words. Perhaps I am wrong. Anyway, a curmudgeonly thought:


As I write this, it’s coming up to Christ-


mas. It starts in the UK around mid-September as soon as the kids are back at school for the autumn term. In my “other” home, Christmas starts the first weekend in December, and this is great. The kids have something to look forward to, and the parents don’t have threemonths of whining to listen to. In the UK, shops start with the stuff that you can’t pos-


sibly do Christmas without, and the most amazing things (bathroom cleaner?) are advertised as must-have Christmas presents. OK, it’s nasty and venal, but it’s been a tough year, and I am prepared to overlook this over-hyping of very ordi- nary stuff for Christmas for people who are hanging on by their fingertips. What I can’t stand, and think should result in an hour in


the stocks for the suits that thought of it, is the pre-selling of perishable foods, packaged and over-priced just forChristmas. This isn’t the small guyswhowill take your order and get


you what you want just before Christmas (customer service, remember). It’s the mega-marts that sell things like “Christ- mas cheese platters” with a best-before-date of Dec. 3 and charge 50% more than if you picked the cheese individually. Bah, humbug!


It’s a Service, Stupid Yet another example of common-sense failure, this time


inWorthing on the south coast.The council provides residents’ parking and has to periodically suspend the parking for a day to sweep the streets and clean out the drains. They planned to do this on Nov. 24, but when they turned up at 7 a.m., most residents were still in bed. So, OptionA, go get a coffee and give the residents time


to leave. Option B, recognize that whatever mechanism you had used to tell residents about the sweeping hadn’t worked (one or two, OK; that’s people being awkward – but all of them?). Option C, ticket everyone in sight. Option C was the winner, and in the ultimate “I have my


foot in my mouth but I am going to carry on speaking” per- formance, a council spokesperson admitted that the residents had been given less than 24 hours notice (who can see a tatty paper notice stuck on a post late at night?) and they could appeal the ticket. How about the council unilaterally cancels all the notices


on that street on that day and doesn’t make the locals bear the cost and inconvenience of its stupidity?


Robotic Car Parks in India, Um? I worked in India some time ago, and it truly is a remark-


able country. The people have their own approach to things and have developed a unique way of making things work. I think one of themost remarkable examples of this is theTiffin


36 JANUARY 2010 • PARKING TODAY • www.parkingtoday.com


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