Opinion: 'Bollards, and a fine, to the illegal city centre parkers', writes print editor Nigel Thornton

Councillor Wayne Fitzgerald and deputy editor Nigel Thornton mark the introduction of automatically controlled bollards in Long Causeway.

How do I know this? Well, as 2022 winds its weary way to its final days I’m compelled to offer some gift-wrapped praise to Peterborough City Council.

The reason being the authority’s continued attempts to tackle the menace of illegal parking in the city centre’s pedestrianised areas.

As regular readers will know it is a subject close to my heart, or to put it another, less delicate, way I have a bug up my backside about it.

It all stems from when millions of pounds of public money was spent redeveloping the city centre, not least Cathedral Square.

You may not like the fountains, but even if you don’t you must agree they should not be used as a pop up car wash.

After all that money was spent I was frustrated by the city council’s lukewarm response to those drivers who used the area as a convenient free parking area.

It led to my “Cathedral Square vehicle watch’’ campaign, which eventually led to the installation of bollards in Long Causeway (the council were probably going to do it anyway, but I’m claiming credit, particularly as I, along with council leader Wayne Fitzgerald, performed the official opening).

Unfortunately, the problem hasn’t gone away but now the council is hoping to use new powers to introduce ANPR cameras, which will see fines sent popping through the culprits’ letter boxes.

Hopefully, they’ll realise it’s cheaper (and more public spirited) to pay for parking like the rest of us.

Worth its weight in coal

I was having some Christmas bantz with my youngest and was demanding to know what he was buying me for Christmas.

“Coal,’’ he said with a grin and I presume he’d probably learned at school that a lump of coal in a stocking was the traditional Christmas gift for a naughty child – now it’s probably an old version Apple mobile phone.

I never got any of the black stuff in my stocking as a child, although I do remember getting an orange and a bag of nuts.

With heating costs this year, a lump of coal might be a welcome present.

Whatever you get in your stocking I hope its what you wanted and I wish a very Happy Christmas to all Peterborough Telegraph readers.