Sound familiar?

I swap local newspapers with my friend George, who lives on the south coast of England, and I was struck by this oddly familiar account of the parking woes in Havant Borough in the March issues of "The Hayling Islander" and the "Ems Valley Gazette."
The borough council wants to increase parking meter fees to bring in more revenue, and businesspeople in the towns fear their customers will desert the downtown shops to go to shopping centers with free parking.

Marie Telford, the vice-chair of the Mengham Business Group, is quoted as saying, "Some customers tell me that they drive into Mengham looking to see if one of the free parking spaces is available. If not, they won't go and pay in one of the car parks. Instead, they  just go and park free of charge at the Co-op -- or they may decide to drive on to one of the free car parks in Havant, where there is a much bigger choice of shops."
The proposed increases range from an extra 10 to 20 pence per hour, representing about a 25% hike; on Sundays and holiday a flat one-pound charge would be introduced, and free parking would be eliminated at several lots. 

The council decided to keep the fees as they are pending further study.
There's another story about workers in the town of Langstone who park on residential streets.  "The streets are filled with cars every weekday as workers are forced to park there due to a lack of parking in the area. The problems started three years ago with the opening of Southern Electric's call centre, which employs 2,500 people and has 860 parking spaces."
A council member is quoted as saying that workers are still parking in the neighborhood streets even though Southern Electric has started running a bus for its workers: "People will be people. That's the problem."
Now there's a universal truth.