Well it's taken more than two and a half months, but I've finally received a letter in this morning's post from Brighton & Hove City Council about the sterling work carried out in early September by their flagship traffic warden, W Lunch.

The letter begins well...


... but let's not forget, these are the representatives of a woman who failed to spot a parking permit displayed exactly as instructed, so to expect them to notice how I spell my name is clearly asking too much. They go on to explain why a Penalty Charge Notice (PCN) was issued to me (though manage to avoid using the phrase "because our traffic warden's an idiot"), before saying this:

"You stated in your appeal that you displayed a valid resident's visitor's permit in the window, however it was not seen by the attendant at the time the PCN was issued. You must ensure that your permit can be clearly seen in order to avoid incurring charges."

I DID!!!!!

Honestly, I could slap the lot of them. They continue:

"The information provided has been considered and in view of your assurances I can confirm that the PCN has been cancelled on this occasion only. The particular circumstances which have led to the cancellation of the notice on this occasion will not apply again as you now have full knowledge of why the vehicle was in contravention of parking regulations."

So in other words, we don't believe a word you say and you clearly had no idea how to display a parking permit, so we're being very generous in letting you off, but this is the last time because frankly it was all your fault in the first place, and you're not getting away with it twice.

It's good to know that the next time one of their traffic wardens completely fails to do her job, I'll be the one who has to pay for it.

The letter's signed...

If that signature says 'Rae', I'm a Dutchman. No wonder they couldn't spell my name. Oh, and it should be yours sincerely. But hey, why start getting things right now.