Is the subject of Dispatches on CH4 tonight at 9pm.
Should raise a few hackles. Double Valium all round?
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Previewed in last night's Lon'n Stan'd. Should be compulsive viewing; examples of the carp attitude of motorists as well as the attendants.
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Funnily enough, I got my first parking ticket in Warsaw yesterday, sinced I moved here a year ago. I?d just dumped the car on the pavement near where I was working (like everyone else does).
I couldn?t make out the fine from the unlaminated ticket which had spent the day under a foot of snow so I asked a colleague how much I was likely to have to pay. She said it doesn?t work like that. I have to turn up to the address specified within seven days, where I?ll receive a small lecture and the fine will be dropped. A lesson for Camden?
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DD edited your post to make it acceptable.
I deleted it.
Mark
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And like we didn't know they were on a target system.
You'll be telling me next that car salesmen are on commision!
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i have views on this but it'll get deleted and the the thread will be locked so i'll keep quiet.
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I am furious about this, these parking enforcement companies and Transport for London and the councils are blatantly criminally corrupt, yet they are charged with the task criminalising us for nothing!
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Not like me to be Mr. Sympathetic but had a great deal of sympathy for the wardens themselves, crap job, crap pay and crap bonuses for writing tickets.
The companies, well that's capitalism. The councils now they are fully culpable. An anti-ticket party should be formed to put the wind up them!
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felt really sorry for the bloke with the bailiffs at the door and hadnt even owned the car,surely this is blatantly obvious as a case to demand compensation for harassment and infringment of human rights,where are the no win no fee guys on this?
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It's not really surprising as a consequence of privatising public services. The contracts go to companies, whose overiding legal duty is to maximise returns to shareholders. And, surprise surprise, that's what they do.
A real pity. Parking enforcement much needed, but putting it in the hands of bounty hunters guarantees the growing backlash.
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They won't touch stuff like this, and I was always lead to believe you were innocent till proven guilty !!! How do these people sleep at night, You know someones innocent and not only do you keep the action going but you don't stop ballifs. It will end in someone getting killed.
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<< How do these people sleep at night.......
Horlicks?
--
L\'escargot by name, but not by nature.
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I had a 'victory for the motorist' story yesterday from a colleague who is a JP. He was sitting on a case involving a motorist who was contesting a parking ticket served by a Traffic Warden - not a private company. Motorist had a ticket for parking in a bus lane, time of offence on ticket 9.40am. Bus lane only operational until 9.30am therefore no offence as no yellow lines etc. Warden said he had seen car parked up at at 9.20am. If this was the case the Bench asked why the ticket said 9.40am. Warden replied it was raining and him and his partner didn't want to get wet serving the ticket so they sheltered in a doorway for 20 minutes! Driver won as the evidence showed no offence had been committed.
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It illustrates once again that this Government is more than happy for the motoroist to get completely ripped-off on every occasion - easy pickings. If serious crime in this country was targeted as motorists are then crime would be virtually non-existant !!
for the record I'm traditionally a Labour voter (not anymore !!)
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Slightly off the subject but not off the thread. My partner has been repeatedly threatened, first by letter, and then by a visit from a "Revenue Enforcement Person" from TV Licencing re the fact that she has not got TV licence for an empty and unoccupied cottage which she owns' It has been occupied in the past but isn't at the moment. She wrote and complained about her treatment and got an ex-gratia payment of £20. A result!
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Reply to Schnitzel's post removed.
DD
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IMO it's yet another example of the way in which local and national government has handed over responsibility for important issues to private companies, self regulating organisations etc. When the muck hits the fan where does it stick?
I have every sympathy for most wardens who are probably just trying to earn a living like the rest of us. Given the seriously dodgy attitude of many motorists I'm not surprised they gradually become hardened. How many times do you think they hear every excuse under the sun and how are they supposed to determine which are genuine and which aren't? They'd argue it isn't their job to do that anyway - the appeal systems should take care of it. Make no mistake I've no sympathy for anyone who issues tickets wrongly though and hope tough action is taken where this is proved to be the case.
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The issue of unjustified tickets should come with a guarantee of compensation.
Some years ago I received a parking ticket when legally parked in a bay opposite to my house. This was originally built as a loading bay for a pub and some shops nearby, but rarely used as such. There were no signs to show this. Having been on the local residents committee to instigate a residents parking scheme, I had detailed knowledge of it operation. It was well known that this loading bay was excluded from the parking scheme.
On the day in question I had borrowed my Mother's car and as it did not have a resident's badge, I ensured it was parked in the loading bay. Seeing the warden about to issue a ticket, I went and told him that this particular bay was outside the parking regulations as it had no road markings to the kerb or outside edge, nor a sign alongside the bay. He pointed to the bay behinn marked on the road and the sign showing the parking limits.
His attitude was that I was in the wrong by staying too long. In fact it took me nearly 3 months to prove my point after a considerable amount of effort. During this time I also found he had been regularly ticketing cars in this loading bay. The end result was I had the ticket cancelled, but I doubt if any of the other tickets was refunded.
After the ticket was cancelled, my wife spotted the same warden dropping some litter. She had great pleasure telling him to pick it up or he would be reported.
Generally the wardens in this area used to be very fair in the way they issued tickets. Usually they would walk arround the block and then issue a ticket, at least there could be no excuse for them being Little Hitlers". Unfortunately this all changed when the wardens were no longer council employees. Ticketing targets has certainly brought more animosity towards the wardens as people now perceive them to be out to issue as many tickets as possible. If I remember rightly there was a prize for the warden who issued the most parking tickets - so common sense and fair play have all been lost forever.
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There's an easy way of sorting out the issue of ticket targets vs accuracy. Keep the ticket targets but any bonus paid is a condition of the warden not having any tickets contested and upheld during that month. Suddenly they'll all start issuing fairer tickets.
Glad I don't live anywhere like London or other large city. It's not worth the bother of going to these places. Once world & dog only does their shopping in out of town places or on the internet the councils and others will have to change things as town centres will be even bigger ghost towns than they are already. Nasty traffic wardens don't make good business sense (as the Lake District has found to it's cost too)
teabelly
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No it isn't pathetic. Its true what Schnitzel said. I presume you didnt see the programme but the fact was that with cars parked all over the place the Supervisor immediately told the TW to walk away as it was political.
It couldnt have been more blatantly obvious that a rule had been made for one section of the community.
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No it isn't pathetic. Its true what Schnitzel said.
Whether true or not, Schnitzel's comments targetting an individual community have been edited.
DD.
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Hi -
I worked in Peckham for 7 years and although I had my share of 'dodgy' tickets I have some sympathy for the wardens. In this area they have a very dangerous job
What we saw last night was nothing compared to some of the incidents I have witnessed.
This is an area where the police are rarely seen in groups of less than four and a small incident with a warden can easily end in a near riot.
I was under the impression that the religous minority (whoever they are) were not left alone for political reasons but because the controller considered it too dangerous a job for a lone PA.
The persecution of some of the motorists (and the non motorist!) was horrific. It just shows that you cannot afford to ignore these people even when they are completely in the wrong.
Regards DougB.
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8< snip 8<
Bye.
DD.
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appalling, appalling, appalling and thats just the bit of the program I saw. They were going to send in the bailiffs for non payment of the conjestion charge to some one who they accepted had never owned the car in question.
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OK, I'm not a huge fan of non-council parking attendants, but I just had one of those rare things: an idea.
Why not make the checking of road tax something sold off to private companies. Let them take 40% or whatever of the 100 quid fine and set them loose. Next time they spot someone without tax in a car park, they're done.
I'd quite like some little Hitlers checking road tax, and it would be effective if they introduced an "insurance disk" too.
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Or go a bit further Jesse and encourage individuals to do it for 'credits' to be set against the cost of their own road tax at renewal time.
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