...I was pondering why their park-and-ride system works (as it does in Cambridge) and ours doesn’t.

When you look at the map, the reason is obvious. The Oxbridge cities are both adjacent to motorways and trunk-roads. We aren’t and so we can’t separate through-traffic from that generated by those living and working here.

So our five park-and-rides can have only a marginal effect while Salisbury remains a major crossroads.

If only Wiltshire Council could be persuaded to campaign effectively for the northern and southern bypasses (for which, incidentally, all the P&R’s are well-placed) it would have a transforming effect.

If you don’t believe me, stroll around Oxford – or Winchester, Newbury and Dorchester for that matter.

Once towns rid themselves of through-traffic, the quality of life improves immensely.

So car-parking charges are going up yet again…

… in the city centre, this time by 25 per cent (from £2.00 to £2.50) for the most popular two-hour short stays.

It’s not clear how these charges can be justified.

Presumably someone has worked out that motorists using the central carpark to go shopping need longer than an hour and that, if two hours’ parking costs £2.50 and three hours £3.00, it makes sense to buy the extra 60 minutes-worth. A cunning plan.

Ever heard of plank-springing?

It was a popular way of taunting troops in Londonderry’s Bogside in the early seventies..

One youngster would stand on the end of a thin floorboard while another raised the far end and then let it go.

The resulting crack sounded just like a high-velocity shot, which usually sent patrolling soldiers (and nervous reporters) ducking for cover.

I’ve often wondered whether plank-springing started the Bloody Sunday tragedy.

It would explain the opening shot that troops claimed to have heard. And because 1 Para wasn’t the resident infantry battalion in Derry (that was the Royal Anglians) they might not have been familiar with this pastime. Not that it excuses what happened. The Paras were never the right troops to use that day; they were notoriously aggressive.

When ITN sent me to shoot a background story on Para recruit training the following week, the compulsory boxing was so violent that the Editor ruled that running the film could inflame the situation.

So it was never shown.