Our campaign for 30 minutes free parking across Barnet has been supported by 1,000 people online and signed by almost 1,000 on paper. But how much can you do in half an hour? Chief reporter Anna Slater put it to the test.

Long before we launched our campaign, Councillor Dean Cohen, the committee chairman for environment on Barnet Borough Council, has been against the idea of free parking.

But I was still a little surprised when I invited him to one of Barnet’s high streets to show exactly how long 30 minutes can be and he declined – even my offer of a cup of tea wasn’t enough to entice him. He must be more of a coffee drinker.

So instead, I asked Labour councillor Alan Schneiderman to join me because he has been calling for a change in policy for more than a year.

I picked him up from Golders Green and we headed up to Temple Fortune, where traders say their high street is “dying”.

3.28pm: I pulled into a spot and after fumbling with the pay-by-phone app and parting with £4.10, we were on our way.

3.30pm: Our first stop was Temptations. My friend’s birthday is coming up so I wanted to buy a card, and Alan wanted to pick something out for his niece. If you’ve ever been shopping with me, you’ll know how indecisive I am. Whilst I spent what seemed like a million years picking out a card, I struck up conversation with the owner, Loretta Paterson.

She said: “People never spend longer than half an hour in my shop – they are in for a purpose and then out straight away. Most people tell me they prefer to go to Brent Cross where it’s free so I lose out.

“Half an hour free parking would make the world of difference.”

3:43pm: After spending less than 15 minutes speaking to Loretta, we headed to Landy’s Chemist next door.

We picked up a pack of blueberry liquorice (it’s a weakness of mine) and managing director Girish Desai was keen to talk to us about the issues.

He said: “People come here because they have to, but it’s the small errands people don’t want to come here that we’re missing out on. It’s very unfair.”

3:51pm: In less than 25 minutes, we had finished in Temple Fortune and decided to head to North Finchley to speak to more traders about their experiences.

4:26pm: After navigating rush hour traffic, we parked in Lodge Lane and 75p later we were on our way.

4:30pm: Helen Michael, who owns Cafe Buzz in the high road has been one of the voices of the traders calling for half an hour free parking.

We settled down with cups of tea (Cllr Cohen doesn’t know what he missed) and had a chat to her about some of the issues she’s faced.

She said: “It’s something that would be so simple to implement yet the council is so dead set against it. We want this, the shoppers want this. Why can’t they see that?”

4:49pm: We finish our cups of tea and still have time to take a leisurely stroll back up to Lodge Lane.

So what’s the verdict? Cllr Schneiderman said he was impressed with how much we accomplished and has pledged to continue raising the issue at committee and full council meetings.

Cllr Cohen said he has been to the “majority” of town centres to discuss the issue with traders and that a new parking scheme in Temple Fortune is being considered, as well as a motion to make Bunns Lane car park in Mill Hill free on Saturdays.

But in the meantime, I think we can all breathe a collective sigh of relief that Cllr Schneiderman survived my driving.