The decision to ban staff from parking at the Manor Hospital at Headington, Oxford, as one of the planning conditions was a well-intended one.

The idea was to encourage workers to use park-and-ride and ease the chronic traffic problems in that area of the city.

But, as ever, motorists are reluctant to give up their beloved cars and will always look for ways to beat restrictions.

True to form, some have found a sympathetic pub landlord who has offered space in his car park for a fee, just a few hundred yards from the hospital entrance.

No more waiting for buses for them!

Everyone wins, according to the landlord -- hospital staff get a convenient parking slot, and he makes money.

Not surprisingly, council officers and members are finding it hard to swallow. They are now looking to see if planning laws have been broken.

We may be proved wrong but the council appears to be on weak ground. It is difficult to see what action could be taken against the pub, its landlord or the hospital staff.

Surely a car park is a car park, irrespective of who uses it?

What would happen if householders offered their drives for hospital parking? Would that be illegal? Unlikely, we think.

It may be that the council will have to grin and bear this one, and put it down to drivers' ingenuity.