When are we parking and when unloading?

After the bread round we got really cross today because a  traffic warden wouldn't believe that I was on the bread round at all. 3 minutes I stayed in front of the shop - in a loading bay. I showed him him the baskets in the back,  I insisted that I could stop off in the loading bay in front of the shop - because guess what, I was unloading. A small, in fact, a tiny bakery as we are, I was unloading a basket not a pallet but unloading nevertheless. He wouldn't believe me, wouldn't even listen and waving his little computer at me, he took down my details and said he was only doing his job. So was I -  but then apparently not.

The offending vehicle

Just as the business is slowly growing and sales are up and the mood is high - here comes the downer, the kick out of the delivery community that may use the loading bay. My car, you see is the family car. It has seven seats because that's how many we are and it doubles up as  delivery vehicle. It is insured as such but not taxed as a van. It isn't a van. So. Mr Grumpy who is only doing his job, is perfectly entitled to wave his little computer at my tax disc and claim that this private car had no right to park in the loading bay but I wish he listened, I wish he bothered to get to know cars that deliver every day. His colleague in High Street does, his colleague in High Street even waves me on and tells me which loading bay is free. His colleague in High Street wants to keep the traffic going, the shops stocked and he keeps the delivery vehicles moving, be they big or small. Frank knows the small community of delivery vans, Frank does much more than his job, Frank runs the street. Mr Grumpy just does his job and someone should tell him that may not be enough.

As we wait to spend this week's profit on a traffic ticket - for unloading in a loading bay.