Sir – How does our county council expect people to help in their leader’s Big Society with the current draconian parking enforcement policy outside Oxford Town Hall? May I explain.

Last Friday, a little after 9.40, I parked outside the Oxford Town Hall to collect the glasses and returned drinks from the bar at the previous evening’s allotment award presentation ceremony, organised by the Oxford and District Federation of Allotment Associations. I spoke very briefly to Town Hall staff at the reception desk about lost property from the previous evening, walked upstairs, collected a loaded trolley from the main hall, wheeled it to the lift, took it down and wheeled it out on to the pavement.

Although I was within the permitted time for loading/unloading outside the Town Hall, I had apparently been longer than five minutes away from the pavement and, as the email from NSL Ltd rejecting my appeal against the fine says, the loading/unloading was not continuous. I do not think I could have been much quicker.

So can Messrs Hudspeth and Rose explain how one is supposed to pick up heavy goods from the Town Hall without spending a few minutes getting them through the building to the door? The way the parking restrictions are enforced around the Town Hall makes organising any event there an absolute nightmare. Come down and see the chaos in Blue Boar Street on any Saturday when there is a large fair or similar event.

At 8.30am, stallholders are forced to unload in a two-way street in which vehicles cannot pass, while there is barely a bus or a car on St Aldates.

Tim Treacher, Oxford