I was at a party last Saturday, and I was trapped in a corner by a very well juiced council officer. The more drinks the guy had the more he was spilling the beans about his council’s parking activities. He told me that his council contracts out its parking and enforcement matters to a private contractor.

The contractor guarantees to the council that it will collect a minimum number of parking fines, and if it fails to live up to that promise, it will be subject to financial penalties. The private contractor has an incentive to issue as many fines as it can, so the poor old motorist is well shafted. I know you are not the caped crusader, and you probably have no wish to be, but are you not sickened by the blatant corruption going on in local councils?

Why should I get favours from the local council on parking offences, just because I know an official that works for the local council, and an ordinary Joe Soap gets the book thrown at him. Also the fact that council officers can abrogate parking fines for their own cars is quite disgraceful.

We love taking the mickey out of foreigners, and so-called banana republics, but we have just as much corruption going on in Britain as they do abroad. Can’t you mention this in your column? It’s out of hand and councils have to be brought to book.