I tried but I wasn't nabbed for parking

But an investigation by The Argus has revealed the softly, softly approach is already alive and well. Karen Hoy reports:

I was expecting to have to make the biggest expenses claim of my career after being told to go into the streets of Brighton and Hove and park illegally all over the city.

In fact, I got more than three hours of free parking and didn't part with a penny.

My brief was simple: I had to choose six locations where I might expect to attract the ignominy of NCP's men and women in green and see how long it would take to get a ticket.

I was to stop my car at the chosen spot, wait nearby and start the stopwatch.

I might as well have brought a calendar.

My driver was Argus photographer Susannah Binney and over two days we parked at bus stops, outside hospitals, on double yellow lines and in residents' bays.

And although parking attendants meandered past our car, none stopped to issue a ticket.

We waited and waited and usually moved on after 30 minutes when the waiting got too much.

We managed a total of three hours 21 minutes' free parking in some of the most sought-after locations in the city.

First we headed to Edward Street, Brighton, near the Royal Sussex County Hospital and a notoriously difficult place to park for any length of time.

We parked on a bus stop at the end of a line of cars. We photographed the car, started the stopwatch and stood away from the vehicle waiting for what we thought would be the inevitable arrival of a parking attendant.

We were confident our misdemeanour would be noticed within minutes. Although we were not causing a danger to other road users, we were proving a nuisance to bus drivers who had to manoeuvre around us.

Ten minutes elapsed, then 20, then 40. We saw a police CCTV van pass us on two occasions without stopping to examine our vehicle. We managed 59 minutes of free parking.

We moved off and headed into the heart of Kemp Town, Brighton, once again thinking we would not be able to stop for long.

We parked on double yellow lines in College Road, just off the junction with St George's Road. Once again the car was photographed, the stopwatch started.

We had seen an attendant nearby and thought the vehicle would be ticketed within ten minutes. Traders came out of their shops to ask us about our experiment and told us we would be moved on within minutes.

They actually bemoaned the efficiency of the attendants who tread the Kemp Town beat. But once again we seemed to be giving the lie to their fearsome reputation. We stopped the clock after 30 minutes.

The interesting aspect of illegal parking is that it appears to be contagious. During our experiment we found that when we parked on double yellows and moved away, it was never long before other motorists admired our nerve and parked nearby.

One parked immediately behind us, creating a potentially dangerous situation.

We moved off to our third location and decided it was time to get really cheeky. We stopped in a layby right outside Brighton police station in John Street and parked on the double yellow line.

We started the stopwatch and retreated to the opposite side of the road.

After eight minutes, we spotted a warden walking along John Street on the opposite side of the road to The Argus car.

He was examining the pay and display tickets of cars parked in the bays. He appeared to ignore an increasing number of cars parked on double yellow lines next to The Argus vehicle . At one point another car pulled up and double-parked.

The attendant spotted an expired pay-and-display ticket on a car, waited for about three minutes and issued a penalty notice.

He walked further down John Street towards Edward Street, continuing to ignore the double-yellow parkers.

After 21 minutes, the police took action. Chief Superintendent Paul Curtis gestured for us to come into the station.

We were questioned about our identities and our activities and asked why we were taking photos.

We explained our investigation. Mr Curtis took our details and said he could issue us a ticket if we wished. We were obviously a security risk but not a traffic nuisance so we celebrated more free and illegal parking.

We declined Mr Curtis' proposal of a ticket and left. Our free parking lasted just 21 minutes.

Was there a lesson to be learned? Did parking attendants always ignore cars on double yellow lines in favour of people overstaying their welcome in pay and display spaces?

We headed for St Aubyn's, a residential street near Hove seafront, to investigate further.

We parked in a residents' bay, started the clock, wandered down to the seafront and came back again, half an hour later.

Still no ticket. We were getting quite desperate for an encounter with a warden.

Over the years I have received numerous tickets, an unavoidable part of the job.

You go out on an assignment, put a ticket on the car, the assignment runs on a lot longer than expected and you return to find a ticket.

So where were we going wrong? Perhaps all the real attendants had been replaced by actors, pretending to issue tickets.

Or was it just our lucky day?

The following day, we paid for an hour's parking in Kingsway, Hove, near the Friends Meeting Place Cafe.

After our time was up we returned to the car and loitered nearby, waiting for a warden to ticket us. After nine minutes, one appeared from the seafront and began heading towards us.

We were hoping he had clocked us arriving, checked our ticket and was waiting for us to overstay before booking us.

But he crossed the road and headed into town.

After 30 minutes, we went to Western Road, Hove, usually crawling with wardens, and joined a number of other inconsiderate drivers on double yellow lines opposite a row of bus stops.

We were clearly disrupting traffic, with buses travelling in opposite directions having to wait behind our illegally-parked cars.

Yet once again we left, ticketless, after 30 minutes.

During our experiment, the only time we saw vehicles getting tickets were those parked in bays - motorists who had bought ticket which had expired.

Brighton and Hove City Council points out time and again that one of the main purposes of parking attendants is to ensure smooth traffic flow through the city.

Yet every vehicle we saw parked on double yellow lines, every dangerously or double- parked car, avoided a ticket even though they were creating the most havoc.

Craig Turton, the city's lead councillor for parking, denies that NCP's wardens ignore illegal parking and instead take the soft option of targeting motorists who have parked legally but outstayed their time in pay-and-display bays.

He said: "Your experience goes to show that the common perception of parking attendants lurking behind every vehicle is untrue.

"We are not taking a softly, softly approach but we want to be a lot more flexible. We want to take a bit of the heat out of the situation. I was concerned about the rise in verbal abuse they get on the job."

The council feels it will receive criticism no matter how strict or soft its wardens are. Coun Turton summed up the council's frustration with a phrase which must never be far from the lips of those responsible for the city's parking: "We are damned if we do and damned if we don't."

My experience warrants a reworking of this phrase. You're damned if your ticket runs out - you're not if you just park illegally in the first place.