I remember, years ago, when Hove and Brighton were separate administrations, a senior Brighton councillor getting into terrible trouble when she said "I've always thought of Hove as being nothing more than a park and ride site for Brighton".
Patcham seems to be going the same way.
Are these cars parked up all day, by folk who are travelling the last leg of their journey into work by bus? This has been a fairly common thing for some years. Maybe the numbers are now increasing?