The Parking Dilemma.
Living in London presents crucial difficulties everyday. There are the usual things such as jobs, bills and the near-impossibility of getting on the property ladder before the tender age of 93. Added to this now is a modern-day conundrum known as The Parking Dilemma.
Mayor Ken Livingstone's congestion charge was designed to keep the motor car out of the centre of London, but there is a more crucial problem brewing in the suburbs. It seems that parking spaces - all of which seem to be for residents with parking permits only - are out-numbered by traffic wardens, three to one. That is the conclusion to be made from a brief stroll through Ealing on a warm day.
Traffic wardens hunt in packs. And it is not unusual to see three or more sauntering along Inglis Road in Ealing, casually chatting to each other and placing tickets on the the windscreens of cars they do not like or cannot afford. Some traffic wardens prowl the streets, searching for prey late on into the evening.
Be warned.
Thomas L. Blair is a sociologist and political blogger on the Chronicleworld 'for creative renewal in Black Britain and Afro-Europe'. His work is honoured in the British Library's archive of "social, historic and culturally significant web-based material from the UK domain". He won top prize in the blogging competition on The-Latest.
Sumantra Maitra is a freelance journalist from Mumbai, India. He is a correspondent for All Sports magazine, and a foreign affairs blogger for the Washington Examiner. He has written articles for news website Merinews.com and other regional publications. Sumantra runs a blog at DailyWorldWatch.wordpress.com. He provided exclusive eyewitness reports for The-Latest on the Mumbai bombings of 2008.
Brian Usher is photography consultant for The-Latest.Com. He is a highly experienced editorial and commercial photographer whose work has been published throughout the world, appearing in many well known magazines and newspapers. Brian has featured in several books and has been a writer for the Royal Photographic Society magazine.
Heidi Kingstone has spent time in Afghanistan reporting for a number of publications. Her work has appeared in the Financial Times, The Spectator, The Sunday Times and other international journals. She has also reported from places like Iraq, Rwanda, Lebanon, Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo, and Kenya. Heidi is The-Latest's Editor at large.
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