LAST year's changes to Britain's licensing laws were meant to signal the nation's final descent into a boozy, violent hell.

While that hasn't quite happened there have been some noticeable changes, particularly for those of us who live on or near a "going home from the pub" route.

Our street has always seen its fair share of drunken idiots heading home on a Friday and Saturday night.

But I've noticed something different about this summer. The same idiots are around but their unstable walks home appear to be spread right through the night rather than concentrated around the 11pm to 1am slot.

In recent weeks, we've been woken up at two, three and, on one particularly memorable occasion, four in the morning by people who, having had one too many sniffs of the barmaid's apron, believe they are the only people who can hear themselves shouting and singing.

Later opening of pubs and clubs, particularly at weekends, must be the reason for this late-night misery.

I would be interested to hear from others who live in similar areas. Is everyone experiencing this?

UNHAPPY faces all round yesterday evening in our street after people got back from work to discover their bins hadn't been emptied.

As I wrote yesterday, our bin men made an unexpected visit at 7am; well before anyone had had the chance to put out their bins.

I suspect those nice people at the City Council call centre will be getting a bit of extra work.

TOMORROW night I'm heading up to Manchester to see England play Greece. This gives me the chance to win serious dad points by taking my two Man Utd-mad sons to Old Trafford for the first time.

And the biggest bonus of all (as a lifelong Liverpool fan) is that I don't have to suffer the indignity of actually watching Fergie's lot while earning said points.

WE ARE told repeatedly that the powers-that-be do not view speed cameras and parking restrictions as money-making opportunities.

Explain this one then.

Last month our street became a permanent residents-only parking area, having previously allowed non-residents to park for an hour.

In the six years or so we've lived there, traffic wardens were a rarer sight than Germans who don't like David Hasselhoff. Now you can't move for them.

In one day last week, I spotted five of them in action.

Far be it from me to suggest that previously checking for non-residents' cars and then having to come back an hour later to see if they were still there was too much like hard work; or that the new restrictions mean easy pickings.

And far be it from me to suggest that the result is extra revenue for the powers-that-be.

But. It. Is.

STAYING on the subject of the new parking restrictions.

They're clearly working because the street is now empty for most of the day and it's dead easy to park when you get back from work.

However, it also means that we and a number of our neighbours have seen friends and family receive tickets while they've been visiting.

Most of the street voted for these restrictions because it was becoming impossible to park anywhere near our homes. The reason for this was the number of local hospital staff using the street.

Why? Because they don't want to pay to park at their place of work.

The result is a solution that is draconian.

Surely a better answer would be for the hospitals and their staff to get together to work out a reasonable staff parking scheme?