Tuesday 12 July 2011

A nice walk in Green (Car) Park


The policeman who approached me as I was taking photos told me that he had never seen as many cars at a Royal Garden Party as there were today, which is no doubt why they'd taken over Green Park itself.

Of course giving 8000 guests free car parking in central London slap bang by their destination, where no buses run, is one hell of an inducement for these worthy recipients of the Queen's largesse (National Trust and RSPB members no doubt) to drive rather than take public transport. I wonder what incentives are given to encourage these day trippers to use sustainable transport - free or discounted rail fares? A special shuttle bus from the London Terminii? Bugger all?

Anyway, what's the royal protocol on where you put all these cars? First of all you appropriate the cycle path.



When that's full you take over the park itself.

What you don't permit on any account is on-road parking on the multi-lane Mall.
Blimey, the police have kept that clear. They've clearly failed on Horseguards Road though where you can rely on the Aussies to take a stand in favour of climate change.