I went to the third meeting I had arranged with Cllr Ray Dodds (Lab) – the Haringey Council executive member for environmental services. He had cancelled the first two at a moment’s notice and was only half an hour late for this one.

I had a few local traffic issues to discuss: to beg for two pelican crossings on Priory Road which has turned into a freeway since pavement parking and bus lanes were introduced and for a speed camera on Muswell Hill itself – a nightmare gradient which some motorists see as a green light to break the speed limit by miles.

But the main reason I am there is to get ‘permission’ to capitalise on the offer made to me by the inventors of the ‘magic’ road hump to pilot them in a road in Haringey. Obviously, I want the pilot on a road of my choosing where Labour have previously refused traffic calming – but am nervous that Labour will hijack the offer for their own publicity purposes.

The ‘magic’ hump deflates and lies flat if you are driving at or below the speed limit it is set at, but remains as a hump if you exceed it. A brilliant invention – rewarding good drivers and punishing bad.

Ray goes for one in the east and one in the west of borough – but concedes graciously that if there is only to be one, I can have it. Hoorah! Now I have to see what I can do and if the offer stands.