Just a couple of days ago I asked (and then answered myself) about the requirements which make double yellow lines enforceable, following on from a conversation with a friend at the weekend.
Well I got the first parking ticket of my life last night, issued by Staffordshire Police.
I met up with a life long friend in our home town of Newcastle-under-Lyme. Neither of us had been out there since I moved to Manchester and she moved to Walsall to join the police three years ago.
I parked the car up on Stones Market, a location that everyone has always parked in for as long as I can remember, and off we went to eat. On our return we saw FIVE police officers all standing together and we wondered what kind of trouble there had been or was about to be.
We then noticed that all the vehicles had been issued with Fixed Penalty Notices. I won't comment on the use of FIVE officers to ticket cars as this is a motoring forum.
The Stones Market is basically a market between two facing rows of shops. The whole area is tarmaced and there are two market stalls in the middle of the area. This effectively forms a rectangular one way system. There are double yellows down the pavement side, but not in the middle next to the stalls. It is next to the stalls that people park, which does not have double yellows. The area is wide enough to leave about 8 foot between the cars and the pavement.
My first thought was that I would appeal on the grounds that I was not actually on double yellows, because I wasn't. They were 8 foot to the left of the car! I then decided to take a look at the double yellows, following on from what I had researched at the start of the week. They were very faded, missing in locations where road works had taken place, and finished abruptly without the required t-bar.
I think that the wine had gone to my friends head, as she dared me to tackle the officers about the FPNs. I did. I was extremely polite when I asked them why I had received a ticket when I wasn't actually on a double yellow. I was told that the lines around the outer edge of the market place applied to the whole area, and not just the pavement side. That sounded plausable to me so I accepted it.
I then pointed out to them that the lines were not compliant with the Traffic Signs Regulations and General Directions 2002. They agreed with me that the markings were of very poor quality, but one added that as of this year the rules had changed so that signs were not required. I told them that I was aware of that, but that my problem was with the markings on the road.
I was polite throughout, never once asking why they weren't out catching "real" criminals (t-i-c), and told them that I accepted the ticket but that I would be appealing on the grounds that I had mentioned. I suggested that they were wasting their time as I would be contacting the local media in the hope that they would inform people of the validity of the issue of the tickets. I requested that they inform the local highways agency so that they could rectify the faults.
The officer told me that they were only out doing as they had been told to do by their inspector, and apologised for having ruined my night.
We drove off and I would have left it at that, had Catherine not spotted that the date on the ticket was 03/02/2004. I really should take up religion! She persuaded me to go back, so I did. They were still there 15 minutes later. I asked the officer who I had spoken with whether it was February or March and he replied February, and then the penny dropped with him. I showed him the ticket and simply said "I hope you haven't made the same mistake on the other cars. Sorry if that's ruined your night" and drove off, feeling that victory was mine.
Sad isn't it, that such small victories give me such pleasure. It will never bring the system down, but at least you've made a small chink in it!
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I'll add that I think that there must be a local was on illegal parking, as I think, from the station code on the ticket, that the officers had been drafted in from a nick about 7 miles away. They had also put the location as Newcastle, Stoke-on-Trent, which would make the blood of any Newcastillian boil, given that Newcastle has nothing to do with Stoke!
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Is this the marketplace behind the new(ish) Warner Village cinema pdc?
I have never been there without it being full of parked cars. (not that this means it's legal to park there of course)
It's always appeared to me to be a crescent road - I'm not sure that I agree that yellow lines on one side of the road should obviously mean you can't park on the other side.
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It is the exact same place BazzaBear. I actually said to the officer who made himself their spokesman, that it had always been used as a parking area. He said he was aware of that, but that he was just doing what he had been told to do. He seemed to be a really nice guy unlike his colleagues who appeared to be smirking as people returned to their cars. It's just a shame that this sort of activity is alienating people against the police.
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"I'm not sure that I agree that yellow lines on one side of the road should obviously mean you can't park on the other side."
Interestingly a 70 mph limit dual I use most days now has a stretch with double yellows on both sides of each carriageway.
It always seemed obvious to me that if parking was prohibited against the n/s verge it wouldn't be that good an idea to park against the central reserve!
Obviously others have not thought the same way, therefore extra lines against central reserve have appeared!
Re: parking restrictions pdc is discussing, surely the detail will be in the relevant parking order.
FiF
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"I'm not sure that I agree that yellow lines on one side of the road should obviously mean you can't park on the other side." Interestingly a 70 mph limit dual I use most days now has a stretch with double yellows on both sides of each carriageway. It always seemed obvious to me that if parking was prohibited against the n/s verge it wouldn't be that good an idea to park against the central reserve!
OK, but that's a slightly more extreme example. If you were on a two lane suburban road with yellow lines on one side and the other side clear, would you automatically assume that you couldn't park on both sides?
If anything, the occurrence of lines on one side and not the other would make it seem even more likely that parkign was perfectly legal on that other side.
I know if several roads, which are quite narrow, where parking is prohibited down one side but not the other, to ensure that traffic can flow down that one side.
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Newcastle still has an ST postcode! I'm from around there so I don't like being associated with stoke either :-) All the parking regulations have changed in an around the ironmarket only recently. Some women was complaining in the paper about being ticketed on valentine's night on a double yellow. It was in the Sentinel I think. It might be the same place as you were ticketed.
teabelly
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Fairs fair if she was on a double yellow, as they are a 24 hour restriction, but none of last nights vehicles were, and parking there has been fine since adam was born!
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Radio Stoke are running with it now as a result of my email to them. Apparantly loads of people are calling in to complain that they were ticketed when not on a double yellow, and also that the dates are wrong on their tickets.
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I wonder if plod deliberatly put the wrong date on the tickets because he's feeling guilty about being asked to ticket the cars.... (a long shot I know):)
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Local paper reported that these 5 plod had been brought in from Leek, a town 14 miles away, with the sole purpose to ticket vehicles.
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