Changes are afoot. Lorries bearing scaffolding have swarmed into Swindon town centre and erected makeshift frameworks here, there, and everywhere. There's one across the street from me that looks like a roof repair following our recent strong winds. The old cinema at the bottom of the hill, the one that spent its declining years as a bingo hall, and spent the last decade under offer, has now been propped up with miles of metal tubes.

Not only that, but the two metal posts inserted in the pavement just down the hill from me that were put up maybe a couple of years ago, have now been switched on. Motorists can see the LED umbers and know which car park in the town centre has spaces. That's great. Unfortunately the LED's also shine directly toward the slope of the pavement, so we pedestrians get blinded.

Official count this morning? All four car parks proudly come up with the intriguing "SPACES", which probably means that despite the advance knowledge, motorists are still going to have to resort to shouting and fisticuffs to get a parking space to pay for. And the council womders why parking fee reductions have not brought car drivers back into Swindon?

Icon Of The Week

Television is so full of iconic moments and characters. Like the Professionals, when a Ford Granada bursts through a glass screen in the title sequence, or Starsky & Hutch, when David Soul leaps thirty feet to land on the roof of his car sitting down. And so forth.

The good news is that I saw Huggy Bear yesterday. Maybe a bit younger, with less of a rubbery walk, but the kid had the image spot on. Not a good look. But he seems happy, and obviously doesn't feel the need to compete for the car parking spacesSwindon offers. I mean, who would want to spend their dole money on a car?