The least liked people in Britain? They should be.

Traffic Wardens. They have to be, rightly or wrongly, in the top ten least liked people on planet earth. Right up there with estate agents, lawyers and well, MPs probably. I personally can not stand them, though I'm sure as individuals out of that ridiculous "trying to look very official" uniform there are one or two nice ones. After all, they are just doing their job. And, if you follow that logic to it's conclusion, I blame and dislike the councillors even more! And they are only making it worse for themselves. Please leave your nominations for the worse council in the UK - personally I have always found Westminster and also Lambeth councils to be particularly unpalatable. However, The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea are giving the rest a run for their money.

The private firm that runs its parking enforcement, National Car Parks (NCP) have just released their targets on their renewed contract. Rather than having targets that try and reduce the problems caused by illegal parking, they are going all out to make fast money. Their targets include issuing at least 306,000 tickets and clamp 15,000 vehicles a year. That will mean attendants will have to issue 100 tickets an hour! That is more than one a minute! All of a sudden I have new found respect for traffic wardens - that is a seriously tough job! I assume if they miss their targets there will be repercussions and all of a sudden being a traffic warden is one of the UK's most stressful jobs. As for Kensington and Chelsea council and NCP, they should be ashamed. There is no regulation of traffic here, merely making money out of some sort of "legal day light robbery". How can your stated aim be to collect 100 tickets an hour? Why not aim to improve traffic flows and have less complaints from "customers" on incorrectly or unfairly placed tickets? Scumbags.