Before the Olympics, there were dark mutterings that, once councils had gained their Stalinist powers, they would not easily surrender them. And so it has come to pass. The parking lockdown, says Newham, "proved such a success" that, hey, here's a random, crazy thought, how about formalising the restrictions into a permanent regime?
Royal Docks has never had a particular parking problem because there's nothing much there but the council sees a land grab, an excuse to build up a department and a new revenue stream.
Let me inform our good burghers what will happen using the example of my development.
Yes, the public parking was occasionally abused by outsiders but when my friends came to stay they could generally find a slot.
During the Olympics, visitor parking was essentially banned, the spaces chained and padlocked. Hey, say the estate managers, that worked well. Let's keep it.
The result is that visitor parking is now paid for, pre-booked, bureaucratic and, because of this, the spaces are, er, always empty.
The shops the estate supports are denied drop-in traffic and the sum total of parking spaces is reduced. Presumably not the desired end.
However, money is made, pointless work is created, inconvenience is subcontracted to time-poor residents. So, in fact, job done.
■ A related domestic matter: The nearby Gallions Reach junction is complex. It is also a roundabout that is self-regulatory.
But, self-regulation is the arch-nemesis of bureaucracy, which demands projects to undertake, empires to protect, admin assistants to employ, flow charts to crayon.
So, for the longest time it has had traffic lights, turning a 10 second roundabout journey into a crazy, stop-start ordeal.
Just before the end of the financial year, the traffic lights disappeared for maintenance or replacement.
Someone, somewhere presumably had money left in their budget, which was better spent on Mr Sheen than returned to residents in the form of lower taxes.
For the duration of their absence, traffic flowed freely, the junction worked smoothly and self regulation prevailed.
The traffic lights returned last week along with the inefficiency, congestion and frustration.
■ Another related domestic matter: A couple of years ago in this column I made a point about a broken manhole cover on the new Jubilee Greenway in Royal Docks and mentioned how months before people had put a cordon round it, but had never actually replaced it.
And it has stayed that way. Through the Jubilee, the torch procession, the Olympics, the rain, and snow and sun.
That's because self-perpetuating bureaucratic imperialism is the name of the game, not, you know, dull old public service.
Where there is competence, may we bring clipboards; where there is urgency, may we bring indolence.
The mantra of tax-funded nest featherers everywhere.
