Canberra, which was long considered to be the city with the fastest parking inspectors in the land (and possibly in the world), loved its legends about the horrors of motorists copping tickets for the briefest infringements.

A dinner party story was of a chap idling his car to the side of the road to wait for an opportunity to do a U-turn.

Before he could pull away, a parking ticket was slapped on his windscreen. The then-ACT government, desperate for funds, had passed down the order that parking inspectors should be twice as tough and boost their quota of infringement notices.

Drivers were living in fear of the "bombers".

Many people believed there was a veritable army of hundreds of inspectors stalking the streets.

According to the acting manager of ACT parking operations, Ross Baker, the inspectors were simply doing their job.

Mr Baker said no order had come from the Assembly demanding extra vigilance or an increase in revenue.

See trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/122283766