Sir – I am sure I am not the only person in Grandpont, or indeed other parts of Oxford, to have become increasingly frustrated by the enforcement of residential parking in the city.

It is bad enough to be paying for the “privilege” of parking in the road in which we live — despite the great difficulty of finding a nearby legal parking space on my return home each evening.

What is worse is that the system seems to be being operated not in order to improve parking locally, but in order to raise money.

I recently received a parking ticket for parking outside my house at 16.49.35 to be precise, after returning from work and unloading a bag of coal.

It seemed unnecessary to move my car to a technically legal place, when there weren’t any within 50 yards, and the working day was over.

But I guess I was an easy target. I objected, and got nowhere. I was told that leniency was extended in the mornings until 9am, but was given no such time frame in the evening. After 16.49 clearly.

Or maybe it is when they have issued their quota of parking fines for the day. Who knows?

I suppose I might feel less jaundiced if I felt the wardens had been as interested in chasing up the owner of two large bags of gravel that sat in a parking space unused for most of the month of March.

As it is I now feel increasingly neurotic about where I should park.

If I dare to go out in the car on Friday evening, by the time I come back I end up parking a long way from house — and certainly out of sight of it — for being “done” the next morning should I be foolish enough to have a lie in.

Peter Tickler, Oxford