83 years after the first parking meter was introduced in Oklahoma City in 1935 we`ve finally caught up in Chorleywood. It was the brainchild of lawyer, newspaper man, and sometime inventor Carl C. Magee, who would go on to file a design patent for his parking meter late in 1935.
Oil, an increase in wealth leading to more cars on the road and it seems residents would park their cars wherever they fancied and disappear off to work or shop.
Not everybody in authority approved of this new initiative and whilst Magee was happy to pose for photographs with his invention, the then mayor of Oklahoma City refused whilst denying any responsibility. The day after the meters were installed, a local lawyer, Ed Butterfield, took out an injunction against the first 130, forcing their use to be suspended for a week.
Seems strange looking back that local politicians would seek to score points off each other…
It was another 23 years before they arrived in the UK in 1958 with the new meters installed around Grosvenor Square in London`s Mayfair charging an old sixpence for an hours parking, Monopoly boards were changed so players could add parking meters and charge when landed on ( I made that bit up ).
Nine years later The Beatles sang about `Lovely Rita` Meter Maid, incidentally their only song where all 4 played paper & comb on the backing track.
Paul McCartney explained `There was a story in the paper about ‘Lovely Rita’, the meter maid. She’s just retired as a traffic warden. The phrase ‘meter maid’ was so American that it appealed, and to me a ‘maid’ was always a little sexy thing: ‘Meter maid. Hey, come and check my meter, baby.’
Some time later, a traffic warden called Meta Davies claimed she had given McCartney a parking ticket in St John’s Wood, London. Claiming her 10 minutes of fame Meta explained
`His car was parked on a meter where the time had expired. I had to make out a ticket which, at the time, carried a 10 shilling fine. I’d just put it on the windscreen when Paul came along and took it off. He looked at it and read my signature which was in full, because there was another M Davies on the same unit. As he was walking away, he turned to me and said, ‘Oh, is your name really Meta?’ I told him that it was. We chatted for a few minutes and he said, ‘That would be a good name for a song. Would you mind if I use it?’ And that was that. Off he went.
At the time of writing this my emails to Paul`s office seeking clarification on which version to go with are awaiting a response.
In the same year, in the 1967 film Cool Hand Luke, Paul Newman’s character goes to prison for the crime of knocking the heads off parking meters, causing a wave of copycat meter decapitations.
I did look for other tunes and films involving parking wardens and meters but most involved gangsta rappers and machine guns, so I think it`s safe to say that things sort of peaked and 1967 will be forever known for its Summer of Love, Scotland becoming World Champions by beating England 3-2 at Wembley and parking meters contributing to icons of music and film.
Fast forward and as the 21st century began, rival Albanian gangs fought for the control of keys to sets of meters in central London, Westminster Council claimed that by 2007 it was losing up to £120,000 per week
A solution was needed so the very council that introduced the parking meter to this country uprooted them and replaced with ones operated by chip and pin and mobile phone technology instead.
I first encountered them as a student in Edinburgh where I learnt to look out for meters that had been jammed with the ring pull from beer cans, not all beer cans mind you, best were the ones from Tennents lager.
Despite students depriving Edinburgh City Council in 2017 their annual profits from parking were just under £20 million, good but not good enough to pick up an award throughout the 17 years of The British Parking Awards, though they were shortlisted alongside Brighton & Winchester in 2016.
Organised by Parking Review Magazine and held in the 5 star Lancaster London the 2018 event was attended by 550 who paid £245 each or £1975 for a table of 10 ( both plus VAT ) to enjoy drinks and a 3 course lunch with wine before comedian Lucy Porter presented the awards.
Early days for Chorleywood but perhaps we might aim for `Parking In The Community`
Parking is an essential public service and can be a positive contributor to local communities. This award will recognise people working within the parking sector who have engaged with and supported their local communities. It is open to: community engagement programmes; projects that see car parks become focal points of community activity; fund-raising initiatives, etc.
We can but dream….
MAIN PHOTO © Thomas Combe