THE resentment felt by Worcester's Arboretum residents about the parking scheme that offers no guarantee of spaces is quite understandable.

No one wants to pay £30 for something they might not receive in return. Apart from that, I fail to see the justice or logic in coughing up twice for the privilege of parking on the public highway. Have some people in high places conveniently forgotten about the purpose of road tax?

However, this is a problem that's not going to go away. A similar scheme could have been started in the road in which I live, but thankfully, the residents had the good sense to throw it out.

What probably concentrated their minds was the fact that it's not just a case of £30. It's more like £120, actually. Just do the sums.

Take this example - over Christmas, we had the entire family round for the festivities. Potentially, that was three extra cars in the street, plus ours. So it's four times £30. Yes, you need a permit for every vehicle - and there will be a number of times when you have, say, three lots of visitors during the year.

Just having a few people round for a social gathering would require extensive documentation.

Then there's the risk of misplacing or losing your permits, not to mention the potential for rows when the four-car family down the way nick what you've always felt was your slot.

There are other concerns also related to this multi-car society. Increasingly, Victorian walled front gardens are giving way to driveways, built by people who are understandably anxious about the future guarantee of a parking place. You can't blame them.

Personally, I look to the laws of nature to solve this problem.

At some stage, people will realise the obvious truth that endless traffic growth is ultimately unsustainable. And then, just maybe, they will rediscover the use of their legs.