I had a job this week that required a reasonable amount of travel – and I stayed at the Solberge Hotel in Northallerton on Tuesday night.

I arrived in Northallerton late afternoon –it was raining. As I drove down the High Street I saw a few shops I thought I might visit.

Parking was available on the Street – excellent news I thought! But then I noticed that you needed a disk. Still smarting from my pathetic parking fine (‘won’ at 10pm at Canning Circus in Nottingham on a weekday night!) I was reluctant to park without a ticket – or in this case a “disk”. But where do you get the disks. I drove up and down the street twice and couldn’t find any clues.

Guess what? I gave up!

When we were in America we were really concentrating on what makes world-class attractions. Attention to detail was one of the things we noticed – and this sort of detail is easy to overlook. It’s fine for the residents of the town – they ‘get it’, but visitors don’t necessarily. It looks a great place. I was prepared to pay for short-term parking – but even if I knew where I could get a disk – could I risk leaving my car without one? Perhaps they think you should go for the first time on the bus. But where was the bus?

You might say I missed out – but the reality is that the town did. I would have probably spent some cash – in a shop or in a coffee shop. But I didn’t – because I couldn’t!

Top Gear Top Tip – “don’t make it difficult for visitors – make it easy”.

p.s. The Hotel was great!