Nicholas Craig column

Dec 1 2006 By Nicholas Craig, The Journal

After a fairly dismal first Test, this may not be the best time to admit I have chosen to spend Christmas and New Year travelling to the Ashes Test Matches in Australia and New Zealand.

I'll keep you up-to-date with my mental and spiritual well-being as we trek across Perth, Melbourne and Sydney to spur on the team, followed by a short visit to New Zealand. Things can only get better. Where have I heard that before?

While I'm in mournful mode I have another admission to make. For the first time since I began driving many decades ago I have had a parking ticket slapped on my car in Corbridge. I was baffled.

The spot in which I carefully parked is owned by the Duke of Northumberland, and therefore free for all to park their vehicles. The vigilant traffic warden informed me, however, that one side of the market square is now classed as highway rather than village green, and, therefore, a goldmine for parking attendants.

I am grumpily aware that councils benefit from parking revenue, but there has to be a balance, or local trade is likely to suffer. Parking meters with a mere two-hour limit have sprung up throughout Corbridge, a village that relies on visitors to keep its excellent range of shops and restaurants thriving.

When the parking charges were introduced a 2,000-signature petition, including all businesses, was handed in to the council. Nothing has yet changed. People spend a whole day out in Corbridge and the two-hour limit is reducing visitor numbers.

Yet I sympathise more with Richmond-on-Thames council, which plans to introduce gas-guzzling charges to residents' permits.

The highest band, G, which includes the BMW X5 4.8 litre and the Jaguar X-type would incur a 200% increase in the cost of a permit. The message this has sent out across the country is that car choice has an effect on the environment locally and nationally.

Creative solutions such as staggered work hours to cut down rush hour stasis, incentives to use public transport or to work from home, and even a two weeks on, one week off working timetable would all reduce congestion and pollution.

Cars are here to stay, and policies have to incorporate rather than simply punish car owners to be effective. Even in Corbridge.

Nicholas Craig is a partner at Watson Burton law firm