IT was an agenda bender. Twenty years ago tonight, York City Council met in the Guildhall. Seven hours, 25 minutes and three barrels of coffee later, the marathon meeting ended. At 1.45am.

Back in 1984 it was thought to be the longest council meeting for 35 years; now this record must stand at 55 years.

Startlingly, all the different political parties blamed each other. Labour council leader Rod Hills said it was down to a deliberate Liberal campaign of disruption.

The Liberals said they had little choice but to table 18 extra questions because the other two parties had kept all the committee chairmanships from them.

Perhaps the only councillor to emerge happy was Gerald Dean, who won £2.90 in a 10p-a-time sweepstake on when the talking would stop.

The event certainly brought back memories for Coun Steve Galloway, who was a significant contributor to the meeting.

"It was the longest I have ever been to," the Lib Dem council leader said, "and I have been to about 300 in my time. After a while they tend to merge into each other."

He couldn't imagine a repeat today with the more "sophisticated system" of executive member advisory panels leaving council meetings to consider "major strategic issues".

He's right: the council's best effort in more recent times was the last budget meeting, which hit midnight.

IT was that budget which confirmed that York motorists would be making up the council's cash shortfall via new parking charges.

The policy has not proved universally popular, and the Evening Press launched its "Stop The Highway Robbery" campaign yesterday.

Our lead story featured the distress of the Samaritans. The charity now has to divert scarce funds to pay volunteers' parking fees. But there are two sides to every street and every story. Opposite the Samaritans in Victoria Street, off Nunnery Lane, is licensed sex shop Blue Star And Nostalgia Publications.

Has it seen a drop in trade since the new double yellow lines were painted? "No, not at all," said a shop spokesman.

"We have been all right, to be fair. There's a bit of parking at the back of our premises and a lot of our customers walk up anyway."

Some of them arrive via the railway station, having travelled many miles in search of collectors' editions of adult magazines like Playboy and Mayfair, he added.

WITHOUT the new parking charges, York's council tax hike would have been even greater than 8.5 per cent, the Lib Dem council argues.

But not everyone in the party agrees with this method of raising revenue.

In Harrogate, Lib Dem councillor Steve Ward has been busy delivering the Focus magazine he edits for the Newby Ward.

This reports shock over the "Tory tax increase" of 7.5 per cent in Harrogate. But what particularly annoys Steve is that another £250,000 is being raised through new and increased parking charges.

"Yet again, those who have to use their cars are being asked to pay more with no prospect of any improvement in rural services," he fumes.

BUT the imaginative motorist can still escape the parking charges...

Updated: 09:29 Friday, July 02, 2004