Change is inevitable. For good, bad or otherwise.

However, with the right management procedure and communication, change can be better understood and implemented.

Changes can be big or small. In this instance, it is a small thing, as change in the way something is done.

Such an example has been brought to my attention by a number of constituents, regarding the parking tickets issued to many locals and visitors alike for parking outside the newly painted lines at the free car parking area on the seafront.

The change, in this instance, was from a free car parking area where people parked their cars in more or less neat rows within or outside the faded lines, to a free car parking area where you could only park your car within the nice new clearly defined lines.

If you now park outside the lines you will receive a ticket and fine.

This has caused a lot of undue stress, particularly to the people who have received tickets for doing something that they and many of the rest of us have been doing for years in this area and therefore thought they were doing no intentional wrong.

One constituent, whose husband uses a wheelchair, said that she “likes using this car park rather than disabled bays, as it’s away from the busy roads and easier and safer when trying to get someone into a wheelchair”.

Unsurprisingly, she felt terrible when she got back to her car to find a parking ticket.

I’m sure we are all delighted that the potholes in Helensburgh have gone, that the car park has been resurfaced and that there are now nice white lines.

But could someone not have put up a notice as you enter the free car park? Something like: “Cars must be parked in designated parking bays. Failure to do so may result in a parking fine.”

I don’t know at this point whether it was by design or default that no sign went up.

What I do know is that most people do not spend their free time reading up on car park rules.

Communication in the form of a reminder would have been helpful and, for some, a good deal less stressful.