On Monday, December 27, I am expected in central London but there are no train services from Brighton or Hove to Victoria owing to engineering works.

Decide to drive and allow plenty of time but traffic is light. Cross the Thames, then begin looking for a car park.

There is lots of empty roadside space so stop to read the rules on a parking meter close to Victoria.

Sundays and Public Holidays: No charge, no time restriction.

Surely some mistake? I'm not used to generosity. Later on, decide to venture with the car as far as Oxford Circus.

Now there are cars everywhere and all parked by the kerb. Surely they must be on double yellows? No.

They are on single yellows. The streets around Oxford Circus are single yellow lined.

I know, it's incredible but it's true. Living in Brighton, I had almost forgotten single yellow lines existed.

Nervously, I park my car in a residential street on a single yellow adjacent to some Residents Only bays and proceed to join the crowds thronging Oxford Street.

Moral of this story?

Red Ken seems to have a transport policy subtle enough to provide a welcome to visitors' cars when there is no pressing reason to keep them out - and it looks like it's good for business.

In contrast, our Ken appears to want your money 364 days a year.

I wonder how many shops have to be boarded up before someone wonders whether the rules could be different on Sundays or in the winter or if some double yellow lines could be turned into single yellow lines.

If the city had a political opposition, I reckon that's the kind of thing it ought to be thinking about.

-Trevor Pateman, Brighton