kford

And The Bronx, Harlem?

Likewise making them swerve all over the road to staddle or avoid conventional speedhumps, as any cyclist will tell you.

Hey, for replacing the suspension-crunching, ambulance-slowing speedbumps on Colyton Road with those flat trompe l'oeil-effect ones, which still seem to calm traffic, you get a thumbs-up from me. Pretty good with the old heavy-item rubbish collections too.

Mark - as a biker I would endorse that policy straight away.

Unfair ticketing is rife. I've suffered (and successfully appealed) so-called 'ghost' tickets, whereby the parking attendent writes the ticket but does not issue it to the windscreen; a PCN, even though I've had a valid parking permit; a PCN for not having the year on a scratchcard permit visible because the card slipped down the window; a PCN issued while moving(!) in Westminster; a PCN on my motorbike while parked on private land; a PCN while in a bay with the sign obscured by ivy. And it's not always to do with the perceived anti-car policies of local councils - I've seen blue badge disabled vehicles and free-parking G-Wizz electric cars with PCNs on the windscreen for no obvious reason. 'Parking Solutions' is big business now. To abandon quotas and all the other scams local councils employ to pull in fines would leave a big financial hole in their accounts. And you don't have to be Littlejohn or Clarkson to suffer from this policy.

I saw them the other day, emptying the place. Two blokes in overalls were loading fans and lights into the back of a large white truck with 'under police escort' written on the front. Two PCs watched over them. I thought it was bailiffs working on behalf of the police to recover stolen goods or the preceeds of some crime, although I thought it strange that it was mostly junk they were loading. What next? A crystal meth lab in Iceland?

It's those anti-car hairdressers again.

Plough DIY for bigger DIY jobs, like painting, coving, tiles. Very helpful, unlike B&Q. Moxon's Fish Counter - they know their - daily-landed - fish and shudder at the very thought of shoppers buying from a supermarket (apparently their fish is at least two days old before it hits the shelves) That Turkish shop is a late night gem for rare foodstuffs. The friendly dry cleaners by the post office. (I dare say the new Sainburys will be competing on that front) Bell's Bathrooms - Good for plumbing needs too.

I've had at least a couple in the last year or so; usually when there are skips and builders about - they like to sweep wheelbarrow spillages into the gutter. Melbourne Tyres will plug a nail hole - as long as it's not in the shoulder of the tyre - for a tenner.