FEW things get blood boiling and pulses racing more than the travails of city centre parking. Now Local Government Secretary Eric Pickles has waded in with an attack on "ridiculously high parking charges and traffic wardens who pounce on those simply popping into their local shop for a pint of milk".
The current on-street charges in Nottingham are comparable with other places.
However in busy shopping and business areas such as the city centre stretch of Derby Road, parking is an issue. If you're picking up your child from school or quickly popping into a shop to buy something inexpensive, dealing with payment machines and paying a minimum of £1 is an annoyance and a barrier to trade.
In Nottingham there is a sense of injustice about the cost of off-street parking and a perception – denied by the city council – that traffic wardens are over zealous.
City parking shouldn't be a cash cow. More free 15-minute parking areas would be a sensible compromise. After all, the city council has listened to people's parking concerns before (after introducing a unpopular charging scheme); and it should keep listening on parking.
The authority's parking policies, and they way in which they are implemented, can have a major impact on the city's competitiveness.