Among the many excuses were: “I have to speak to my daughter” or “They told me to ask for John” or even no comment whatsoever. And invariably that person would end up managing to get into the building to pay their licence.

People queued for up to two hours and more, with many in the sun, while the queue inched forward agonisingly slowly. There are two shop-style parasol shades, but they are tiny and do not cover more than 20 people at one go. A rough head count of the people outside the building came to about 180.

What is the most perplexing is that once inside the building, there were at least 20 clerks on duty, all of them working. The procedure is that you go to one desk to check if all your documents are in order and that you have no outstanding traffic offences. You are then asked to go to another desk where you pay your licence fee.

The clerk then prints out your new licence disc and you are done. The latter part inside the building takes about five minutes, so it begs the question, why does the queue take so long to budge?Yesterday was the last day of the month and corridor whisperings were that September is a very busy month for car licences. Perhaps it would be a good idea to have extra staff on duty, or at least have the office beyond midday.