Dear LPG,

I have a story with a moral to offer readers during these new and uncharted times that we are living through.   This one is for the pensioners, or in fact anyone who drives and who has ventured out to the shops lately. 

We all need the odd loaf of bread or pint of milk and, whoever you are and whatever our age. This now often means being prepared to find yourself at the other end of a queue of people that stretches from the door of the shop where you intend to find these items, and extends right around the carpark to virtual infinity. 

I think I read somewhere that we are getting used to staying at home and there is an element of security for quite a lot of people as they accept that if you don’t go out there is a greater chance that you won’t inadvertently be touched, breathed on or influenced by this virus.   I, for one, try not to go out often; once a week has proved to be sufficient for my needs.  So for the last few Saturdays, I have got up bright and early and found myself in the queue I have mentioned. 

I made the mistake of getting there at eight o’clock, when the shop actually opens, the first week after the queue had already formed.  It took me 45 minutes to get to the other end that time.  I tried ten minutes earlier the next week which made little difference.  But last Saturday I mistimed the whole thing and arrived ten minutes late (by my standards).  This left me in a queue of equal length but I was in it for one and a half hours.   But the weather has been kind, and I am lucky not to have any problems standing for that long yet.  Most of the participants spent the time on their mobile phones as they multitasked their way from the back to the front of the queue.

As I got closer to the door, having run out of people to have a telephone chat with, I noticed a sign that I have seen so many times before.  Have you ever overstayed your welcome in one of those shop car parks and literally paid the penalty? 

I did a bit of maths and worked out that by the time I actually got into the shop my 90 minutes was well and truly up. 

When I was finally allowed into the shop, I asked the security man who was letting people in at the door, if parking restrictions had been suspended in the light of the length of the queues and the times we are living through, and he assured me that they had been.  But having shopped, and when on my way out of the shop, he stopped me at the exit and suggested that I keep my receipt in case the CCTV is still making records of the car registration numbers as our cars make their entrances and exits because I if that little seed of doubt that was planted by the comment… I don’t think that anyone in the shop really knew the answer to my question and I am sure that goes for all shops that use these private parking agencies…

So I just want to say to readers that it might be a good idea to keep receipts, and a note of how long you waited in the queue, just in case you receive a penalty letter after all this is over because the cameras may well be working and cannot catch the virus but it is possible that they might catch you.  

Please mention this to your family and friends who drive… 

HW, Crofton Park