You reach a certain age as a parent when being out late at night is normally due only to the fact you are acting as a taxi service for your children.
So it’s fair to say in recent weeks my chauffeur services have been in regular demand. My kids may all now be adults, but some habits die hard.
Canterbury’s car park scheme is fundamentally sound but not ideal at all times
I’ve done runs to and from the airport (including one pre-Christmas nightmare jaunt home from Heathrow which, due to a crash en route, took a bottom-aching six and a bit hours to return to sunny Thanet) and plenty of trips to nearby town centres to drop off and then pick up a few hours later.
But while once a relatively simple job, Canterbury’s ANPR car parks – you know the ones, where a camera reads your number plate to let you out – makes arranging a pick-up in the city a bit of a nuisance.
Because once upon a time, when picking up, you could just tell your off-spring to meet you in such-and-such a car park and when, as appears inevitable, they arrive 20 minutes after the arranged time, you could sneak out without having paid a penny.
A bit naughty, I know, but, frankly, never for one moment have I felt a twinge of guilt about it. Plus, it’s normally at the time of day when the charges don’t apply. Probably.
But today the ANPR thing complicates issues.
With barriers in place, taking the plunge could prove costly
I am registered with the system and under normal circumstances – ie when I actually want to park and head into the city centre – it all operates smoothly. But on the pick-up run, not being able to enter a car park to do a quick bit of loitering without triggering an automatic payment is a pain.
Now, for all I know, they allow you a 10-minute grace period. I’d like to think they do. But it’s a risk. Even at 11pm at night.
Because what I don’t want to add to the experience of being out late when I could be at home drinking wine and watching the TV in my middle-aged manner, is the £2 ‘overnight charge’ at a certain city centre car park for pulling in safely for a few minutes.
And with a barrier to entry, you do have to commit to entering. It is, of course, a terribly first world problem and I hesitate to bleat about it, but needs must.
So because I’m a tight wad, the only option is to pull up on the roadside – which, almost inevitably in and around Canterbury, means you’re sat on double-yellows – and then spend a nervous few minutes willing my son or daughter to get a wriggle on.
Car parks in Canterbury are now equipped with barriers and an ANPR system
Plus I look like some weird old kerb crawler.
Almost inevitably, I end up doing a few laps of the local area for fear of a police patrol car passing me and pointing out the error of my ways with a ticket. Knowing my luck, I probably burn through £2’s worth of petrol in doing so.
The ANPR scheme is, in all other ways, a good idea. There’s no faffing about with change and you just get in and drive off. But on those late-night runs it is more NVP (not very practical).