Awake early posting today's YouTube link for Morning Prayer to WhatsApp, then back to sleep with the lulling sound of the news on in the background. Roger came around at ten thirty for the drive together to Port Talbot for Fr Derek Belcher's funeral. I made a navigational error coming off the M4 at Margam, and missed the turning that would take me into the Taibach district of the town, where St Theodore's is located.
As a result we went on a bypass that runs along the periphery of the steel works, no longer emitting smoke steam and sulfurous stench, all furnaces shut down, awaiting demolition and replacement by new electric arc furnaces. in a couple of years from now. The road was very quiet with little industrial traffic. It took us to Sandfields, and then we had to double back to Port Talbot on another road, and got lost in back streets before there was an opportunity to stop and consult Google Maps. By now we were close to the junction roundabout where we should have left the motorway, from which we would have been able to see Saint Theodore's rising about the neighbouring terraced streets. I dropped off Roger and hunted for a parking space in a side street, and just avoided being late.
There were about a hundred and fifty worshippers present for a traditional Solemn Requiem High Mass, with about thirty robed clergy, including two bishops, and more clergy rearing clerical collars among the rest of the congregation. Almost everyone was wearing black, whether clerics or not. I felt quite out of place. It hadn't occurred to me to wear anything different. I have a black top coat, but rarely wear it for any reason. I recognised many of the senior clergy present, retired or still active, but not many to greet personally. I've spent too much time out of circulation in the clerical world of Llandaff diocese over the past thirty five years. I greeted Pam, Derek's widow briefly, just before we left. By that time, she must have been exhausted, receiving condolences from such a large gathering of mourners.
It was three by the time we reached home again. Clare left lunch warming on a plate for me, not knowing exactly when I'd be back. After eating, I walked for a couple of hours, returning after sunset. There are notices posted on lamp posts in our area about the imposition of parking permits and not for the first time. There's no consensus about this in the four streets that make up our zone. There are more cars needing a space to park than there are available spaces, but overall, the fact that some residents aren't here all week but commute is a one factor which makes a difference.
It's rare to find it's impossible to park nearby, apart from late at night. Some latecomers park within areas delineated by yellow lines and risk getting fined if the civil parking enforcement team arrive before they'd move their cars to commute to work. In effect, few get fined, and the available space is adequate given the mobility of the user constituency. I doubt if there's been any proper data gathering on this issue recently or previously. Current churn in housing occupation and the fact that some residents get old and stop driving, or arrive and settle having chosen to live car free, are dynamic factors which need assessing every few years, in order to justify imposing parking controls where none are necessary.
As a long standing car owning resident said to me, while I was trying to take a photo of the latest parking notification posted on a lamp post, residents have muddled through for years without needing additional controls. The case has to be re-stated to the Council yet again, in the hope that common sense will prevail and municipal time and effort will not be wasted.
The major concern over street parking isn't to do with local residents, but the fact that people not wanting to pay for city centre parking, park a mile out, where we are, when they come into town for a match or concert in one or other of the three city centre sports stadia. This disrupts the local modus vivendi, even if it is only for four of five hours, depriving residents as a result. If this could be dealt with there's be fewer complaints about lack of parking space. As it was getting dark my efforts to get photos of the two pages of notification posted on lamp-posts turned out toe be futile. Not only were they not properly in focus, but my pictures were of the Welsh version instead of the English.
After supper, I spent the rest of the evening writing. and made an effort to get to bed early.
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