It was a strange place for the red mist to descend. A railway car park in the snooty Surrey town of Weybridge. I was putting my £3.50 into the ticket machine when I spotted a notice from Elmbridge Borough Council which told those of us who had the temerity to pay for our parking spot rather than leave our car for free in the street that there was to be an increase from 1 April.
My bet was that a 10 per cent rise would be the top whack. In a climate where customers were lending money to banks to keep them solvent and where new-builds in Bury could be bought for the price of a pomegranate, anything else would be scandalous.
I was quite wrong.
As I worked my way down the notice I saw in 2pt type (this article is in 9pt) the number they had in mind. And the red mist came crashing down. All-day parking was going up by £1.50 a day to £5 a day — a whopping 43 per cent hike. A quick check of my pay packet confirmed that I had not received a 43 per cent pay rise lately.
I felt like punching somebody. It’s tough to identify civic leaders as they walk down the road. Why don’t they wear yellow fluorescent jackets (everybody else seems to) with the word councillor on the back?
When I got home that night I was still seething. The first thing I did was call my local MP Philip Hammond on his mobile. I was certain that he would be outraged. After all, he was shadow chief secretary to the Treasury and although the Tories don’t believe in much these days, they would be hostile to a 43 per cent rise in anything with the notable exception of their second homes.
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