Total law enforcement

The Vol-in-Law and I have just completed one of our annual Yule-time rituals. The paying of the parking permit.

Our parking permit expires around the end of December – and since we have no off street parking and we must pay to park in front of our own house (£66 or around $120 a year). I don’t mind the permit cost for my borough – as in most things – provides pretty good value for money in terms of parking. Many other London boroughs charge far more.

But in the run-up to Christmas I often tend to forget to renew the permit and one year this resulted in some fairly staggering parking fines. Wandsworth gives a grace period, but when that’s over, Wandsworth becomes the borough of total law enforcement. Firm but fair, if you park illegally – you will get a ticket. Those of you who enjoyed parking at the University of Tennessee will remember the student parking Nazis who revelled in ticketing for the slightest violation – or just ticketing because your car was there. I won’t say that Wandsworth ticketers are quite so nasty as their comrades across the pond, but they do work on a similar quota system.

So, it was with some stress and anxiety that I “remembered” that we hadn’t renewed our parking permit. We’re cutting it pretty close now in terms of renewing by post, so I thought we’d have to make a little trip up to town hall and queue with the other supplicants for a new permit. But the Vol-in-Law phoned through and they told us that we’d have plenty of time to receive our new permit – what with the 7 day grace period. He’s run out just now to post our application – (a necessary thing in the UK since letter carriers won’t collect your mail for sending in the same trip). Let’s hope it arrives in time.

UPDATE: It did arrive – before the end of the grace period. The Vol-in-Law installed the sticker in the car and we remained ticketless.