Courier Van Contra-Flow Lane Pioneered in Aberdeen

Something which makes all motorists seethe with righteous anger and indignation, fury and wrath, is the proliferation of on-road facilities for those freeloading cyclists we see more and more of these days, out on the streets in Aberdeen "City and Shire" getting in the way of important tax-paying motorists who are just people out trying to do a job, keeping the economy going. Thankfully, thus far our quisling allies at Aberdeen Cycle Forum and CTC Grampian have managed to prevent the roll-out of extensive cycle facilities in Aberdeen "City and Shire", but it's surely only a matter of time before we begin to see such exotica as mandatory cycle lanes (actually, there's about 50m of that on Lang Stracht) and one-way contra-flow cycle lanes - perish the thought.

One-way contra-flow Bus lanes are bad enough, and - even though the gentle art of bus-lane driving was recently decriminalised, we have, unfortunately, yet to see anyone using the contra-flow bus-lane on  Menzies Road in order to rat-run Torry. Early days, though.

But, Aberdeen is rightly proud of its engineering heritage and we're pleased to see that enterprising spirit of inventiveness and innovation has now spread to the traffic engineering sphere. Yes, if the inventiveness of the drivers of Aberdeen Cars (and vans!) and their willingness to try new ideas and new methods is anything to go by, traffic woes in Aberdeen "City and Shire" will soon be a thing of the past! In the spirit of Mr Cameron's "Big Society", the enterprising and self-empowered drivers of Aberdeen Cars (and vans!) see no need to wait for top-down reform. Oh no, our motorists are in the best place - at ground level - to institute grass-roots reform from the bottom up.

Citizen Contributer "Lewis" contacted us to notify our "InnovationWATCH" desk that a new, vibrant and important paradigm in motorist innovation was being piloted on the streets of the city centre. Yes, thank-you "Lewis" for notifying us about use of the "Courier Van Contra-Flow Lane" which he spotted on Aberdeen's famous grand-processional "Boulevard of the North": Union Street. "Lewis" sent us this photo:

Heartwarmingly self-authorised innovation in the use of the bus-lane, there from Casey Transport's little Astra reg. SD60WGY. Driving contra-flow in the bus lane, parking and offloading goods at a bus stop despite the loading restrictions, facing the wrong way and ignoring the double-yellows. It. Makes. Us. Proud.

It is, of course, only fair that important wealth-creating delivery-drivers should be allowed to use bus lanes, park illegally, drive the wrong way, ignore loading restrictions, etc etc. Like the Tory party proposal to "uplift" speed limits throughout the country, until such time as the authorities introduce measures to rubber-stamp the activities of people who are - after all - just getting on with trying to do their jobs, the blameless courier-driver must take the inconvenient extra step of flashing his hazards, ah, sorry *exempts*, as we call them here.

Aberdeen Council Cancel Mary Portas Free Parking Plan

We got all excited about the forthcoming suspension of parking charges in Aberdeen "City and Shire". You'll all remember, just before Xmas, that Mary Portas off the telly saying that the only way to save 'the High Street' is for councils to offer free parking in town centres. The BBC covered it:

Free parking
Having affordable town centre parking is another key recommendation.
In a recent survey, the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) found that 50% of their members said the lack of affordable town centre parking had a detrimental effect on their business.
John Walker, chairman of the FSB, said: "Putting in place free controlled parking schemes and introducing a parking league table could go some way in [addressing] this."

And yes, we agree with this, it must be put on any sensible planning horizon. The common sense policy of free parking in city centres is long overdue and much needed and would definitely go a long way to easing traffic woes. We already pay enough for the privilege of driving our nice cars into town. We are already taxed to the eyeballs with road taxes and council parking charges are just another tax on motoring from our anti-car, anti-business, anti-growth council. That Mary Portas off the telly is right to announce that parking should be free for important wealth creators like us, bringing in our extensive buying power at high speed from our hinterland dormitories to the US-style covered-mall shopping pleasuredomes of Aberdeen. Being off the telly, she is sure to be perfectly correct in all her opinions and recommendations. We should take note.

But did our council listen to this important and correct TV personality in her call for free parking for the important wealth creating drivers of Aberdeen Cars? Did they listen? Oh no, they think they know better... As everyone knows, in recent years our council has done everything they can to discourage people coming into the city by car, cloaking their anti-car, anti-growth, anti-Aberdeen measures in a green mantle of environmentalism.

And so it continues... we noticed this in council-subsidised local freesheet: The Aberdeen Citizen (BEST [sic] free newspaper in Scotland) :

But Aberdeen City Council's planning and infrastructure convenor Kate Dean said the [parking] controls were there for a reason. "If you do not want to get fined, then park in the correct place," she said. "We would also hope that people use public transport which would reduce congestion as well." She said she did not support the scrapping of parking charges...

Typical. Just typical. But we can take a crumb of comfort... nowhere in her anti-car rant does Kate Dean mention that anything should be done to support or promote active transport modes like walking or cycling. Thank goodness, for these treehugger activities have no place in the city of the future (which is unlikely to have any trees for them to hug anyway). Aberdeen's latest multi-million pound indoor shopping mall - ultramodern Union Square with its extensive outdoor and covered parking accessible by thrillingly spiral ramp - that's what the city of the future will look like.

One of the reasons for the success of Union Square is that – once you have battled your way through the traffic – at least the parking is adequate and reasonably priced. 

We suppose that we have to agree to an extent, though, with Kate Dean; we agree with her that some people should be expected always to need public transport to get them to the shops - shame. Some people in the underclass will always just be too poor to afford a really nice car to get them to Union Square with its welcoming, vibrant car parking.

So, to sum up, our council needs to take note and make things right and ease transport with lots of free or very cheap car parking space and extra road capacity for cars, so that our city centre can yes become a welcoming place again, regardless of how people choose to travel, whether by car, or public transport. Either option is open. See - we're not monsters. (As long as they don't come on foot or by bike - haha, for goodness sake! Be reasonable!)

Deception!

Haha! We have to admit it, we got caught out, we fell for it hook line and sinker! Do you remember when we wrote about our local council insulting us all by telling us to "just leave the car at home" when Xmas shopping. We wrote stuff like:

The retail sector in Aberdeen "City and Shire" has designed itself around mass-motoring. Our huge city-centre carparks servicing the huge city-centre indoor shopping malls. And, of course, driving about a lot and using lots of petrol supports the oil industry - our major employer. And everyone knows that the retail sector in Aberdeen is one of the key drivers of economic growth - contributing to a real "buzz" in the city providing the vibrancy which will kick-start the economy of the whole country, pulling UK plc out of recession. Not only that, vibrant Aberdeen now has by far the highest house prices in Scotland, and all that economic activity demonstrated by the highly economically active motorists of Aberdeen "City and Shire" as they vibrantly drive about the place helps to keep house prices high, showing the way for the whole of Scotland - what with average house prices in Aberdeen now approaching 20% higher than even Edinburgh!

So, for this Gordon McIntosh to critically undermine the engine of vibrant house-price growth demonstrates beyond any shadow of doubt that he is anti-car, anti-free-market, anti-growth and anti-Aberdeen. But then, what do you expect from a public-sector employee, featherbedded as he is with his gold-plated pension? How dare he presume tell us what to do! If he likes totalitarian communism so much he should move to North Korea, where hardly anyone has a car (coincidence?). Then he'd be happy, wouldn't he?

But now, we take it all back. Because just the other day, citizen contributor 'Ali' clicked the CitizenContribution HotLink (on the right-hand sidebar there) and told us the truth about this scandalous deception in a shocking exposé e-mail:

Dear Mr Skidmark,

I read your recent post with some interest "Just Leave the Car At Home" - Insult from Council

I fear what has happened here is those lazy journalists at the evening express are trying to cause trouble.  If you read the very cleverly worded press release on which the story was based:
http://www.aberdeencity.gov.uk/CouncilNews/ci_cns/pr_traffic_011211.asp

You will see the council does not really mean it - yes there is lots of stuff about the bargain park and ride, but the real truth is towards the bottom of the article where it reveals how many car park spaces and even some impromptu highway code advice.  What more can the motorist wish for? 

The economics speak for themselves, even at the discounted rate, for myself, husband and three children to park and ride costs £6 - this would pay for more than enough time in Union Square parking to do all my shopping and have a coffee!  Aberdeen city council should be recognised for allowing Union Square to charge such low parking charges in an urban area!

I trust you will bring this scandalous reporting to to your readers attention.

Regards
"Ali"

Yes, we fell for it, we actually believed the greenwash and then got all hot under the collar about it. Yes, it looks like the mischivious jouralists at the Press and Journal and Evening Express were looking to stir up trouble. And they got us hook, line and sinker. Yes, we didn't do our research properly. If we had done, we would have seen that our council knows which side its bread's buttered on. As 'Ali' says: "what more can the motorist wish for?"

Thank-you, 'Ali', what indeed?

New Parking Opportunities on the Lang Stract

An exciting range of new parking opportunities for the hard-pressed drivers of Aberdeen Cars has opened up on the city's Lang Stracht (for those who don't have The Scots tongue - that's a street-name which means "long and straight")

For so long this long straight road which connects the west of the city to the suburbs of Kingswells, Westhill and beyond has been blighted by those dog-in-a-manger mandatory bike lanes (that's the ones with the solid lines which motorists may not enter - despite paying for them via road taxes!) These bike lanes have been "supported" by double-yellow lines, thus robbing us of our right to park in them, and have provided continuous and integrated cycling infrastructure like in abroad. This makes us feel uncomfortable, because we don't like change and we're not used to foreign things.

Before

For those reasons, we're delighted to see that, at the former site of the Cocker's Garden Centre (now developed as housing association homes) the gap in the bike lane and double-yellows which had been the entrance to the garden centre has not yet been annexed by the rabid menacing cylists and their politically correct traffic engineers with their funny foreign ideas.

Because there is no cycle lane at this spot, and becasue there are no double-yellows, this provides an excellent new parking opportunity for the drivers of Aberdeen Cars VW Golf reg. Y300SUF and Honda Civic "Sport" (ooooh!) reg. W89RGB.

Today

We were particularly pleased that the drivers of these Aberdeen Cars chose to park there, because their actions completely destroy the continuous and integrated nature of the cycling infrastructure which had hitherto linked Aberdeen with its western suburbs. Very well done indeed!

Pressure on Parking

Loving - as we do here at Aberdeen Cars - all things American, we very often read the New York Times for updates from 'across the pond'. So we were utterly horrified to read this article: "Europe Stifles Drivers in Favor of Alternatives" which details the cancer of "pedestrianization" which is creeping across continental Europe. Like us, the NYT adopts an incredulous tone in its reportage of some of the madcap antics of the Europeans:

...With politicians and most citizens still largely behind them, Zurich’s planners continue their traffic-taming quest...

The article cites a study "European Parking U-Turn Reaps Rewards", which details the growth of parking restrictions in the centres of some continental European cities and the way the way in which:

...European cities are reaping the rewards of innovative parking policies, including revitalized town centers; big reductions in car use; drops in air pollution and rising quality of urban life.

Well, thank goodness we don't have to put up with that sort of nonsense here in Aberdeen where extra new car-parking facilities in the city centre are rolled out on a continuous basis. For employees on their way to another vital day of spreadsheet-wrangling-of-national-importance in their tasteful cubicles, there's the company underground carpark. Recent developemnts at the IQ on Justice Mill Lane and Union Plaza on Union Row have seen the roll-out of well over a thousand of these employer-subsidised places, and we've noticed cheeky new underground carparks appearing on Diamond Street, Huntly Street, Langstane Place, underground Union Street (access from Union Row), Windmill Brae, The Green, Castlegate, Shiprow, Queen's Lane, John Street, Queen's Street, oh and probably other super-secret spots too. We particularly like the way that the lower-ground floor of the impressive Lloyds Register building on Union Terrace is now a car-park accessed from Diamond Street. You'd never tell from the listed Union Terrace frontage! Super-Secret!

But let's not forget about consumers! They are the source of all economic growth, and so must be coddled frictionlessly (and without going outside if at all possible) from their TV-lounge to shopping mall point-of-sale. Therefore, we're delighted to report that, since the opening of the Union Square shopping centre with it's extensive indoor multi-story parking facilities (1700 spaces - park all evening and night for just £1) there is an oversupply of covered-in consumer parking in central Aberdeen, with the variable matrix signs (strategic locations around the city centre) rarely showing less than 3000 spaces available to the all-important consumer.

We're proud and inspired that this policy of over-provision of parking space in the city centre is being pioneered here in Aberdeen - yes, that's the carrot, but we also like the stick. In order to encourage the good drivers of nice Aberdeen Cars to take those lovely cars all the way into the city centre and make use of all the high-quality new parking spaces, we note the spread of under-provision in some out-of-town shopping destinations.

For instance, at the Danestone Tesco, just take a look at these absurdly small spaces occupied by the driver of Aberdeen Car Range Rover V8 "Supercharged Autobiography" (oooooh!) reg SV60OBY, with it's 5 litre engine:

With thanks to citizen contributer "Iain" who hit the citizen contribution hot-link and emailed aberdeencars@gmail.com to provide us with this image. As "Iain" says:

An adept parking maneuver, cleverly taking up two spaces with a cheeky yet skilful diagonal placement. Perhaps an oblique (excuse the pun) comment on the absurdly small parking spaces that so-called planners are providing these days?

Yes, at first you might think this is a sinister anti-car policy. But we think that it's actually rather clever and subtle. We think that the planners know what they're doing here and that this is part of the strategy - we all want urban renewal, don't we? We all have our qualms about the growth of out-of-town shopping, isn't that so? By their provision of these absurdly small parking spaces, the town planners are looking to encourage the uptake of driving cars like these into the very heart of the city centre where there are plenty suitable parking spaces. Traffic flows in the centre of town demonstrate vibrancy and if the cars are really really nice, like this one, we can be proud to look on the busy roads of our town centre as demonstrating that ours is a city on the up-and-up. A city with "bustle". A city that's going somewhere, and knows where it's going - it's going shopping! Without wearing a coat!

More, more! Faster, faster!

That's why we look forward very much to the forthcoming City Square Project which, via the gift of comprehensive redevelopment, will contribute to the continuous improvement of the motoring environment in central Aberdeen by it's provision of several hundred new, high quality, secure, underground parking spaces in the space currently occupied by useless, hated, Union Terrace Gardens.

Some say that the gardens are not the problem, and that the Dual Carrageway should be 're-allocated' for pedestrian use, but we say: "What's wrong with you? Are you too poor to afford a nice car, then?".

If you own a nice Aberdeen Car and like driving it in the city centre; if you want to fight back against the sinister forces of roadspace re-allocation; if you just hate cyclists and pedestrians; or if you think that Global Warming is an EU conspiracy you should join our campaign to "Save the Denburn Dual Carriagway!" (Like us on FaceBook, follow us on Twitter)

Urban Realists vs. Urban Intellectuals

An informant has passed us a couple of links to PDF reports on the Aberdeen City Council website from which we can infer the institution of a bizarre anti-car-ownership policy by our council.

http://committees.aberdeencity.gov.uk/mgConvert2PDF.aspx?ID=12635
http://committees.aberdeencity.gov.uk/mgConvert2PDF.aspx?ID=10028

The texts refer to the setting up of a so-called "car club" in Aberdeen. Not only will the vehicles for this weird "car-sharing" (eh?) scheme sit dog-in-a-manger like on the street in parking spaces which should by rights be the preserve of proper motorists who own their own cars and pay road tax, but these "car club" motors will be made available to non-car owners! Indeed, it is expected that existing car owners who join "car club" will give up car ownership! Honestly! You couldn't make this stuff up!

From one of the council reports:

Broadly speaking, a car club is an organisation that owns or leases, and maintains, a fleet of cars from which its members can book a vehicle whenever they need it. The club pays for tax, insurance, servicing, cleaning and fuel, whereas members pay a joining fee and a subsequent fee for each journey made. 48 cities or towns in the UK (including London of course) currently operate successful car clubs. The concept has only failed once, in Liverpool, because of vandalism in poorly lit areas. Studies by Carplus, a national charity supporting responsible car use, have shown that 10% of car club members will give up owning a car or sell a second family car or defer owning a car in the first place. Typically, this results in ten vehicles slipping off the radar for each car club vehicle. The environmental benefits are evident, and individuals are encouraged to consider more closely whether they really need a car, or (more likely) whether they really need a second one.

Clearly this plan is a “green” initiative – dreamed up by politicians and “urban intellectuals” – to reduce the number of cars in the city centre by trying to persuade people that they don’t need cars. Hahahahahaha!

From an urban realist’s perspective, this initiative will have little effect on city centre traffic which has become a problem as a result of poor planning: over the last 30+ years, developers have over-developed city centre sites by being allowed to “buyout” the lack of parking.

The motor car has been around for more than 100 years. It is quite unacceptable for the Council to be treating city centre residents and visitors as pariahs for daring to own cars. What these "urban intellectuals" fail to realise is that we urban realists represent the majority of people in Aberdeen who aspire to the convenience of personal motor transport, pay dearly for the privilege, provide much employment, contribute greatly in taxes, and then people like the "urban intellectuals" expect them to ‘leave the car at home’, while their money is spent creating cycle lanes and the like for freeloading cyclists, pavements and the like for freeloading pedestrians and parking bays and the like for freeloading car-club members.

For this reason car club will fail in Aberdeen.

More Cars on More Roads Leads To Rome

While some misguided commentators call for Aberdeen to adopt a Northern European model of traffic management, we here at Aberdeen Cars call for a more nuanced approach. You see, the greenie hippies and other War on the Motorist crusaders are always banging on about global warming and trying to make hard-pressed motorists feel guilty about getting about using the transport mode of their convenience and free choice.

Well, firstly, let us point out that anyone who lives in Aberdeen "City and Shire" would be perfectly reasonably within their rights to think that a bit of warming would be a good thing. Particularly this winter! Brrrr!

So if global warming is real (which it isn't! - everyone knows it's just an excuse to tax Britain's beleaguered motorists more and more!) and the climate heats up, we should expect more Mediterranean-style weather. Therefore, we should adopt Southern European models for traffic management - as pointed out in this illustrative, educational and inspiring photograph taken by Bill, Other Aberdeen's Foreign Correspondent, reporting from the streets of Rome.

Dateline Roma

Bill submitted his report by clicking the CitizenContribution hot-link to the left of the page and e-mailing his copy to abedeencars@gmail.com And for that we thank him very much.

As this plucky foreign corespondent's reportage states, both cars in the picture are parked, it was getting near the end of the day and some of the cars had moved off making this parking position look all the more innovative. Note the zebra crossing, the drivers of both cars didn’t - and why should they? The road-space in Roma is rightly theirs to do with as they please.

An interesting aspect of this photo is the so-called 'smart parking' by the Smart Car. At Aberdeen Cars we don't really like smart cars, we think that they are the thin end of a very big environmental wedge. So we're pleased to see the proper car - the 4x4 - blocking it in and teaching the Smart Car's driver an important lesson: "Ooops, sorry, we thought your car was just a bollard. Or maybe a bin."

More Obstacles

Regular readers will know that we've covered the parking options outside the Co-op on Holburn Street once or twice before. Or maybe even three times.


Anyhow, over the last few weeks, in competition to the Co-op, a new 'not normally manned' Tesco Metro outlet has opened on the neighbouring site once occupied by legendary hardware store The Colour Box. A concerned citizen contributer got in touch and asked us to explain the function of the bollards which have since appeared on the pavement outside the new Tesco.

It's obvious to us that the bollards are a disgusting anti-motorist measure placed there as a sop to the filthy hippy vegitarians which the Tesco hopes to attract away from the pinko communist hive of the Co-op next door. These dangerous bollards intimidate the blameless and beleaguered hard-pressed tax-farmed motorist by threatening (as we've covered very recently) to scratch his lovely car should he attempt a PaveParking maneuver, which is, of course, the right of the motorist, particularly in Aberdeen where we are in the vanguard of providing the necessary economic growth which will pull the whole of the UK out of the doldrums.

At least we see the other legitimate use for pavements (other than PaveParking) being well demonstrated in the photo. Yes. Pavements are for bins. Fact.

Queen's Road Parking Lane

No doubt enraged by the reports in the local press that the dark anti-progress forces have gained ground in promoting cycling and walking in Aberdeen "City and Shire" (as we reported last week), once again we're delighted to see the self-empowered drivers of Aberdeen Cars take matters into their own hands in order to reverse this insidious trend. We expect little else - these people are our everyday heroes.

See the dashboard flowers? Lovely!

Here we see that the drivers of five Aberdeen Cars, led by VW Beetle Hatchback 1.6 Luna (ooooh!) reg SL10WUE, doing their best to stamp out cycling by making full use of the Queens Road Cycle Parking lane, westbound at the Hill of Rubislaw.

This sends a very clear message to those who think it's a good idea to cycle:

"It isn't - in fact, it's a very bad idea - we don't like it, and we don't like you. We're going to do our best to stop you."

And quite right too. We all know that - what with being the Oil Capital of Europe and all - the local economy depends upon demand for petrol. That petrol, is, of course, made from good ol' North Sea Oil - our stock in trade. The more consumed, the higher the oil price, the better it is for Aberdeen "City and Shire"! Supply And Demand, d'you see?

So, those who think that commuting to and from the western suburbs on this piece of cycle infrastructure makes them big, clever, "green" and better than everyone else obviously have an anti-local-economy axe to grind. And the sooner we re-educate these people and correct their aberrant thinking the better. Then we (and they) can all get back in our nice Aberdeen Cars and jolly well get on with creating economic growth.

This is what is meant by "The Big Society". Isn't it lovely?

SnowParking Roundup

Now that the festive season's over, and the snow and ice have cleared, it's time to take a moment to find out what lessons the drivers of Aberdeen Cars can learn from weather like this. I bet the clever entrepreneurs of Aberdeen can turn this to their advantage!

Parking Restrictions. Frozen! Hoora!

PaveParking is of course something that the drivers of Aberdeen Cars do as a matter of course anyway. Particularly in the upscale West End of the city. However, during the winter months, the clever PaveParkers of the West End provide an extra benefit by actually saving our hard-pressed council precious funds. You see, the PaveParkers actually prevent the gritting and clearing of pavements all over that prestigious district. This is People Power. This is the Big Society: We don't want or need the pavements to be gritted, so we use the means at our disposal to prevent it.

Indeed, why should our council devote precious resources to subsidising the unimportant feckless road-tax-dogding pestestrians? These freeloaders infuriate us with their refusal to contribute to economic growth and pay their way; pay their share with road tax, petrol tax, extra VAT, parking charges, and all the rest. These pestestrians are unimportant, they do not deserve our subsidy. If they were important, they'd be able to afford a nice car, and wouldn't need to waste the council's money on having the pavement gritted, or indeed maintained in any way.

The clever PaveParkers of Aberdeen Cars are doing us all a favour by showing these pestestrians just where they stand in the socioeconomic pecking order, and by freeing up precious roadspace so that the infinitely more important, hard-pressed, busy, clever and responsible motorists can enjoy the benefits of better traffic flow, which, as everyone knows, is the predominant source of economic growth and prosperity.

So, PaveParking is to be encouraged whenever possible. But those new to PaveParking mustn't get carried away. Please don't go too far, the pestestrians might "CarriageWalk".

Pavement? What Pavement?

If the snow conceals the double yellow lines, that means you can park wherever you like. Close to junctions, on the zig-zags, wherever. The No Parking signs don't count when there's snow on the ground. Obviously.

So. Let's look forward to more snow during the remainder of the winter. We just love the parking free-for-all which it implies for the drivers of Aberdeen Cars.

Snowparking - Let's Not Be Complacent Out There.

Perhaps emboldened by our Essential Services post last week when we pointed out the fact that delivery drivers can safely ignore pestestrian crossing zig-zags when they are covered in snow, the driver of MG Rover ZT-T 180 Sports Estate reg. SW05VBT has thrown caution to the wind and parked immediately beneath the "NO PARKING - At any time" sign at the top of Aberdeen's Abergeldie Road. The double-yellow lines are obscured by the snow, you see?

Maybe he thought the sticker on the sign meant it didn't count?

Or maybe his actions were motivated by self-preservation - the pavements are very slippy. Yes, the council knows that economic growth comes from cars and cars alone, flowing unimpeded around Aberdeen at all times. The roads must be cleared at all costs and kept open at all times so that the cars can flow. Only losers are ever seen walking any distance, so - quite rightly - none of our hard-earned council tax is wasted on clearing the pavements when it snows. Therefore, by parking so very close to the junction, the driver is perhaps enhancing his safety (and also prestige) by minimising the distance he must walk. And quite right too. Safety is prestigious.

All of which makes it all the more infuriating that the heartless Community Warden has sought out our hapless snow-parker and punished him. Who'd have thought that these hawk-eyed busybodies would be working when the weather is so poor? Not the put-upon parker of SW05VBT and not us at Aberdeen Cars either. We were shocked!

Booked! While its actually snowing!
That's not fair!

Generally, when the weather goes bad, we'd always thought that (like on Saturday morning or all day on Sundays) parking became a free-for-all in inner Aberdeen and that when the snow falls particularly badly, all parking regulations are suspended for personal safety and economic growth reasons. So the fact that this hapless parker has been booked when there's snow on the ground is a horrifying development. It's yet another example of how hard-pressed motorists, already tax-farmed by central government, are being treated as just another revenue-raising cash cow by our local authority. It will act as a brake on economic growth if VIP wealth-generating motorists are not allowed to express their entrepreneurial flair by using the smallest excuse to grant themselves a license to park where and when they please.

And it's a disgrace.

And we thought that RNUC members were exempt.

RNUC: "It is about good companionship and a sense of belonging in a dignified atmosphere,
where old traditions have meaning and value, because they have been tested and retained."

Old traditions, like parking wherever you like.