2nd April 2023

 Last night huge flames from a neighbour’s garden bonfire were as high as our roof, embers on our fence and trees, but what did our Council/police/firemen do? Nothing. Elsewhere, our suburbs have been narrowed out of existence. Previously thriving shopping streets are now ghost towns, their customers prevented from getting anywhere near. Non-electric vehicles have been outlawed. Parking, even if you can find a spot, is a joke. Meters are being replaced by apps, causing mayhem. Twice now, parking in the same spot and paying by app, we returned to see a yellow penalty notice stating “you haven’t displayed a parking voucher on the windscreen.” The app company had wrongly recorded the street around the corner as our parking position, so the Council parking attendant thought we hadn’t paid!  Each blames the other. Electric vehicles too are a problem. Because charging them can take hours, a van driver left his vehicle charging overnight only to find the following morning that he’d been charged(!) with overstaying at the charging point. How are already-overladen power stations going to cope with all the extra demand? You’ll need a second mortgage to replace the battery, and your life’s at risk if you end up in a river. City life today. We’re all in deep water.