news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/3016048.stm
BBC filmed a warden booking a driver. The driver having just parked and got out to put coins in the meter found the ticket being written before he got the coins in the slot.
Various excuses were aired by management.
So watch it if you are in Westminster.
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I am currently working a contract at Bolton town hall and it is fascinating to watch how the traffic wardens operate around her. They tend to go around in twos or threes, presumably for their own safety, and they seem to be extremely zealous. I have seen them writing out tickets for people who are illegally parked but still in their cars, and then applying the ticket once the person has left their car. You would think that they would just tell them not to park there wouldn't you. They all seem to be very furtive.
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If I were a warden I'd want to go around in pairs too ! I wonder how long it'll be before a warden is murdered by some maniac over the price of a parking fine.
Having said that I have no sympathy for those who abuse their power but if people didn't park in such stupid, inconsiderate and dangerous places we wouldn't need so many wardens.
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There used to be a warden in Kensington who would hide near particular parking black-spots. If you parked there in the hope of getting away with it he would leap out of hiding and explain very politely the error of your ways. He said his job was to keep the traffic flowing, not to collect money and that he would give you a ticket if you parked there again. Alas, there are few of his type around.
Despite his politeness and consideration I frequently heard him being roundly abused and compared to Adolf Hitler. I never heard him say anything that was not quietly polite. He didn't last, unfortunately as I am sure he was soon sacked for failing to collect his quota of fines.
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I have been on the receiving end of the stupidity and arrogance of these people no less than 3 times during my last two trips to UK.
They acted as they owned the streets rather than I, who had paid to use them.
It is perfectly clear to me that preference is given in the recruitment profile for these positions to:
(a) ethnic minorities with accompanying chip on shoulder; and/or
(b) advanced borderline personality disorder.
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I once watched a traffic warden checking cars in a multi - storey car park. Cars without a valid pay and display ticket had the warden on his knees feeling underneath the front grill. I asked him what he was doing and it turned out that a hot radiator meant that the driver might be going to the pay machine, a cold radiator meant a parking ticket.
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Yes but, Growler .. you have paid to USE the road, but using does not include obstructing. Odd how one man's parked car is another's obstacle.
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You'll love this one, then!
A local town centre has nearly all of the service roads privately owned and will now only allow parking in the service roads with a permit. There is a total zero tolerance policy, even disabled drivers are clamped in areas they have been 'allowed' to park in for years. If you are working in any of the shops and offices served by these roads all you have to do is get a permit from the control office and you are allowed to park.
No problem, you would think.
BUT, the control office is in the middle of the shopping centre so you have to park in the service road and walk to the office to get a permit, takes at least 15 minutes. While you are walking to the office and back the clampers come round and clamp you! Then the fun starts, because the clamping is contracted out to a third party the buck passing starts, it took a 'sparks' working in a bank over FOUR hours to get unclamped while the jobsworths argued over who was in the wrong. In the meantime he stood there watching them and told his customer that he wasn't working while his van was clamped, reckon he must have been on wages!!
I now ring ahead to my customer and ask them to meet me in the service road with a permit to park, they don't particularly like it but they understood my point when I said that time is money and if I was wrongly clamped while working for them then I felt they should pay for my time getting it sorted out.
Believe it or not, the jobsworths are now saying that 'really' it should be the driver in person who should collect the permit....
AAAARRGH!!!!!!!
Cockle
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worcs city the parking duties have transferred from the police (and sensible traffic wardens) to the council (and all sorts of goings on)
anyways since the change the streets around the various council offices are all subject to heavy handed ticketing (was always much more relaxed when the police were in charge)
however you can notice certain cars seem to be immune from tickets, always wondered where their owners worked
transfer of parking enforcement to councils is rolling out round the country - be warned, the very centres of corruption and inefficiency are taking over
turned out nice again
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Funny how this change over coincided with a large increase in the cost of parking. Get them out of the carparks and onto the streets, far more profitable.
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One more reason to quote at people who ask me why I live where I do.
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Growler is right as usual, what were petty infringements on our liberty are becoming major pains and sooner or later a warden is going to get killed.
Example from Northampton, disabled drivers are booked because the photograph on the new permit is placed the 'wrong' way up in the windscreen...
Me, I'm off to Spain soonish...
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Last month in Bolton, a lot of the local taxi drivers were in town to protest because one of 'their own' was in court for assaulting a police officer, yet the police do nothing when taxi drivers are assaulted. Or something like that.
In anycase, these guys were parked on double yellows, loading only bays, and double parked, outside the town hall, magistrates court and police station.
The wardens didn't dare book a single one. Cowards!
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I went down to Chelsea to look at a job last week and parked in my normal little side road just of the Kings road. They now have these smart new machines that give you a ticket to put in the dash instead of a meter system.
On my returning to the car I found I had a parking ticket plastered on the side window wanting one hundred quid within fourteen days. The ticket on the dashboard was clearly visible and still had 20 mins left and I got a passer by to verify it in writing.
They wrote back today and said I would have to pay the fine because apparently my ticket on the dashboard was not clearly visible to someone short.
I have a witness statement in writing saying it was clearly visible so what should I now do.
The people who issued the ticket are Kensington and Chelsea Borough.
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ask for the appeals procedure and appeal
the parking doctors web site can tell u more
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They wrote back today and said I would have to pay the fine because apparently my ticket on the dashboard was not clearly visible to someone short.
You are kidding aren't you? Does it say on their conditions of parking that it has to be clearly visible to someone short, or just clearly visible?
Can't they send their vertically challeneged wardens out with stilts?
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Why doesn't this site have an edit facility so that you can correct your typos?
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Slightly off topic but people constantly (and understandably complain) about getting tickets when they've parked in bays so last night I was interested to see that all the new pay & display meters in Bromley town centre have a fairly long list of conditions attached to them explaining the circumstances in which a ticket can be issued even though you've paid the correct fee and have a ticket. One of these is overhanging an adjacent bay which is often the source of disputes about parking tickets. So next time you guys/gals park in a bay check the rules displayed if you want to avoid a costly fine.
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If you've got a metro or like then following the overhanging rule is easy. But in some areas of where I live the marked bays are either to short or narrow for say a family estate such as a vw passat to fit into. The worst case was the back was level but the front over by a foot.
parked on the end so as not to overhang another bay, left a note explaining and stating that i did not expect to get a ticket.
This was five years ago, I know that I would get ticketed now as they seem so picky now, or is it just money.
- also, have you noticed how parking meters accept money at all times now, even outside of charging times. Used to be you could pay if it was free and you'd misread the times. Is this another case of make as much money as you can?
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Yes I noticed that problem last night - my 940 estate barely fitted into the bay!
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