They
were out before 7 a.m. this morning, these photos were taken 20 minutes later, but that
wasn’t early enough to catch the first commuters and overnight parkers. It might
have helped if our incompetent council had put up warning notices in advance but
there were none. Just a line of cones on both sides of the road that weren’t
there yesterday. I shall be out at 11 a.m. to see if the gestapo have been busy with
their penalty notices. Maybe the polite message on the windscreens is a good sign.
At 11.15 a.m. and 1.20 p.m. (after the gestapo’s scheduled visit) there were no penalty
notices in evidence and the road marking was well on the way to completion. The
contractors had successfully marked out the parking bay around the early commuter and it was
the standard 1·8 metres wide. I checked with a tape measure; Bexley council has an unfortunate track
record of undersized bays and then telling those caught out by them to
challenge the fine in court.