Real life | 3 March 2012

Childishly, fatuously, I used to play a little game with Lambeth Council that saved me £20 a year.

The game went like this: every time my residential parking permit was up for renewal, I used to not renew it for a month, during which time I would park my car five streets away where the parking was free.

I called this Parking Freedom Month. The first day of Parking Freedom Month was a lot like tax freedom day, when you start working for yourself, and stop working for the taxman. The only difference was, Parking Freedom Month only applied to me, because I could never persuade anyone else in my street to do it.

Maybe that was not so surprising. It was an awful lot of bother, not parking outside my house and driving every night to a street ten minutes’ walk from my house, just to get one over on the council.