The miscreant hadn't turned up by the time I finished for the day, but I went for a coffee after work, and looked in on the way home and the car was gone. The centre user got a lift from another centre user in the end, but she would have had to come in the next day to retrieve her car.

We were thinking of fitting a padlock to the gate, but then staff could be constantly getting up and down to let people in and out - and the office is not staffed all the time and some groups have early morning or late evening sessions, so we would have to get loads of keys cut.

If the charity was rich, which it isn't - it is a Lola group we could consider fitting a barrier - but as the premises are leased that might not be allowed and I don't know if planning permission would be needed.

What annoys us more is that the miscreant has a small car, and he could very easily tuck it into a corner instead of parking diagonally across two cars.