Parking at £1 a minute....

I managed to get ripped off in a car park the other day - ironically at the National Rail Museum.

I'd driven up north and a colleague called me to say he had an interesting news clipping he wanted to give me. He suggested the reception area of the Museum would be a good place to meet.

It was certainly well signed posted and easy to find and I quickly found myself in the museum car park. Alarm bells should have rang as I was funnelled (no pun intended) into the entrance and I saw the daily parking rate displayed. I put my car into reverse, but it was already too late.

I was already past the point of no return with a Chelsea tractor right on my tail and no ‘escape’ lane.

I was obviously in the wrong car park and made straight for the exit. Even NCP car parks allow motorists to drive through and make a sharp exit if you’ve made a mistake. But not the National Rail Museum.

I went to reception and explained my dilemma, but I was wasting my breath. There was no hourly rate for the car park – there was no other car park – and once in, the only way out was with a seven-quid exit token.

Seven quid for seven minutes!

It was no consolation when the nice lady explained that entry to the museum was free so they had to maximise parking fees. I didn’t have time to visit the museum, free or not!

It also didn’t help to be told that the fee was for all day – specially when a waiting car filled my space as soon as I vacated it - and handed over another seven squid.

On my drive home down the A1, I worked out that with an endless supply of customers like me, in a ten-hour working day, the National Rail Museum could rake in £600 a day for every one of the dozens - hundreds? - of spaces in their precious car park.

Sounds obvious, but I wish I'd used the train!

Police willing to tackle weighty problem...

Police officers enforcing weight restrictions through Stamford town centre stopped 25 lorries in just a few hours during a crack-down on Wednesday.

Sixteen drivers were issued with a £30 fixed penalty notice and the other nine lorries were turned back.

Hopefully, the drivers who were stopped will spread the word to other hauliers that the clear weight restriction signs are there for a reason: there's a price to be paid for using Stamford as a shortcut.

Anyone who thinks trained police officers should be out catching criminals will be pleased to know that's exactly what they were doing...

The entire operation was run by one Special (unpaid!) Constable and one Police Community Support Officer.

The officer in charge at Stamford - Inspector Gary Stewart - says he will continue to use the resources of a Special and a PCSO to conduct these 'stop checks' to allow regular officers to deal with the other issues that affects our community - such as burglaries.

Keeping heavy lorries out of Stamford helps protect the environment and make life more pleasant for visitors and townspeople alike.

An example of the excellent value offered by both Specials and PCSOs!

7.4 million Top Gear viewers silent on train stunt: 43 make the headlines...

A controversial train crash stunt broadcast last night as part of the Top Gear show was filmed last year here in Lincolnshire.

The BBC considered pulling the item following Friday's derailment of a high-speed Virgin train in Cumbria in which an elderly woman passenger died.

The film was a spoof health and safety item presented by Jeremy Clarkson who wore two safety helmets and warned drivers to always wear hi-vis jackets!

The stunt shows an unmanned 170-tonne locomotive slamming into a people carrier carelessly wasted by Clarkson.

The film was shot somewhere in Lincolnshire and its showing had already been postponed a few weeks ago after a fatal accident at a level crossing.

After taking the decision to go ahead last night, they briefed journalists and broadcast a warning at the top of the show - all no doubt good for the viewing figures.

The crash was naturally spectacular - and shown in actual speed, again in slow motion, and a third time in ultra-slow motion.

Critics say it was the wrong time to broadcast the stunt in view of the Cumbria fatality in which the hero driver and others are still in hospital.

Apparently, 43 viewers complained to the BBC.

Seven-point-four million others didn't.

My only complaint was not related to the Cumbria train crash, but the waste of a perfectly good people carrier.

Our already-battered and well-past-its-sell-by-date but t/rusty Mondeo would have done the job perfectly...

Tory hypocrisy on rail safety...

Since the botched rail privatisation was entirely the responsibility of the last Conservative Government, remarks on safety issues by a Tory frontbencher after this weekend's rail tragedy smack of breathtaking hypocrisy.

Shadow chancellor George Osborne brazenly told Sky News:

There is a mismatch between the management of the rail network, the track itself and the rail companies like Virgin.

One of the things the Conservative Party is looking at, and we are not directly relating this to this accident at all, I am making a broader observation.

We are looking at whether in the future there should be a much closer link between the people who own the track and the people who run the trains.

Does the man who wants to run our economy really think people are daft enough to have forgotten - or forgiven - the Tories for fragmenting our railways and deliberately separating the safety of the track from the train companies - against all expert advice?