PARKING OR BARKING? (plus je vois les hommes, plus j'aime mon chien)

	Our contractors successfully applied for suspension of several parking bays on St Paul's Road so they can bring in and take out stuff. No-one is allowed to park there from now until mid-August. That includes the contractors because “suspension of parking is only for loading and unloading”.“So what do you suggest the builders do with their vans? They are going to be here every day for the next 3 months?” “Pay for parking like everyone else. Or they could park in Station Road. It’s only a few minutes walk away.” It’s about ten minutes actually, probably longer with a wheelbarrow and a couple of shovels.
In short, the contractors can not park in empty parking bays where parking has been suspended, as they requested for their convenience and ours, because the suspension only allows loading and unloading - although the sign says "No Loading" and "No Unloading". Doreen, of “Forever Active”, taught her seated exercise class on Thursday morning. She rang later, angrily, to say she had received a parking ticket for parking in one of the suspended bays. She had been bringing her 97 year old mother-in-law to the exercise class. Her car has a disabled blue cross. Customer Service weren’t interested.		No change either when told that a volunteer who helps with Thursday lunch for mental health service users and people with learning difficulties had also received a ticket. Forget the elderly,volunteers engaged in community work,  the disabled, people with learning difficulties or mental health problems folks. Just keep issuing those doggone tickets. This morning there was only one "No Parking" cone. Doreen recommended more. Now there are 6. So you see they do listen to public opinion. But they have "criteria" And if we didn’t have rules and penpushers to enforce them, life as we know it Jim, wouldn't be life as we know it.
On a more positive note, the contractors have made a start by clearing a path to the fire doors. They also emptied the compost bins and buried our rotting vegetable matter under the pile of earth and rubble pictured on the right. No matter. The next step is to make a gap in the flint wall and cover the path from the pavement to the fire doors with a hard surface. Room 5 is out of commission for Centre users as it has now become the site office. Incidentally, the digging today revealed an impressive slab of York stone (top right), roughly 1 metre by 1 meter 50. It probably last saw the light of day in 1841.