Edmund Burke wrote that Bad laws are the worst form of tyranny . Magnus Linklater, at the end of a victory against traffic wardens in Edinburgh several years ago, updated the great jurist by adding: Good laws, badly administered, are also a form of tyra

Edmund Burke wrote that "Bad laws are the worst form of tyranny". Magnus Linklater, at the end of a victory against traffic wardens in Edinburgh several years ago, updated the great jurist by adding: "Good laws, badly administered, are also a form of tyranny".

I recently offered to help my next door neighbour when she was moving to Paris. Unknown to me she had two bays suspended and I was partially parked in one of them. I discovered a warden about to ticket two cars belonging to my downstairs neighbour. I rang their doorbell but it turned out they had gone on holiday the day before. They ultimately had to pay nearly £1,200 to retrieve their cars!

I asked the warden if he was going to ticket my car and he said "No". After ascending two flights of stairs to my friend's flat, I descended a few minutes later with some of her property to discover that I had been ticketed!

I have since met the warden in the street but he cannot admit to my having asked him if he was going to ticket my car, being fixated on my going to my neighbour's door. I certainly was not going to ask him about his health! If he had said 'yes' I would have obviously moved my car.

The matter is complicated by the fact that the notice concerning the suspension was attached to another suspension which has been in place since last summer for seven bays due to building work. So the council gets a year's income from suspended bays for at least seven bays as well as householder's permit fees!

In the past the council have sometimes notified residents in writing about suspensions but they did not do so on this occasion. I have now been though the process of receiving several wrongly-addressed items from the parking office, who now want £180 from me. The letters have sometimes taken 10 days to reach me.

Finally, I note that the ticket states 'contravention believed to have been committed' and demands money.

This is deemed illegal by The Bill of Rights 1689, an act not repealed by the Road Traffic Act 1991. This PCN is therefore an infringement of my human rights (to be found guilty before paying a fine) as well as being an administrative injustice.

CB Mason

Ellerdale Road, NW3

THE Lib Dems and Tories campaigned on 'fairer parking policies' in the local election of 2006. Now we learn that Camden's parking revenue has gone up by a staggering 22 per cent in two years, since they took over.

Last year, 559,156 parking tickets were issued, and £22.7million. brought in to the council's coffers - an increase of £4million on the last year. This is the biggest rise next to that in neighbouring Westminster. Does this sound like a 'fairer parking policy'?

You would think that, with all the talk about getting cars off the road for the sake of the environment, there should be fewer tickets, not more! This sounds as if the new administration is saying one thing and doing another. And let's hear specifically what the additional £4million is to be spent on.

Cllr Penny Abraham

Shadow Executive Member for Environment, Camden Council