Parking tickets

floggit · November 11, 2017

My works carpark has employed a outside parking co to monitor employees park in allocated spaces ( management and grunts have different spaces) and to make sure its not used by public.

A condition of the use is to display a permit. Many people stick it to to window, many put it in place everyday. Me only working four days a week didnt want it on show on my days off. After 9 mnths i finally forgot to put it in place and got a ticket. My fault but hey ho. Approached my management and they had no interest in helping to cancel the charge for a 22yr employee. Thinking £70 is not really a justifieable amount to pay for forgetting to display a permit for one day i decided to research and fight it through the appeals process. I joined the pepipoo motoring forum and taking advice fought my case. With research i proved the ticket was not issued legally and they had not issued a correct notice to keeper. In fact with more knowledge i proved they had failed several statutes in the protection of freedoms act 2012 ( pofa ) and several of their governing bodies code of practice and as such could not hold me liable. I never mentioned the failure to display a valid permit. I fought them on their own terms and conditions which they could not get right as required by law. My appeal was upheld and the charge cancelled.

So if you get a ticket on council or private land do not rush out and pay the reduced amount thinking if you dont it will cost more. The idea is to pay nothing. It takes some time and effort ,yes. Parking co's rely on the fact that people panic and pay, when with a little effort you can avoid paying using the law and their own procedures to your advantage.

The-Acre · November 11, 2017

Well done you! I once read that private carparks that issue fines aren't enforceable by law, not sure how true that is. I'm glad you won, some wouldn't bother, but I know I would!

Verbout · November 11, 2017

I haven’t had a private car parking ticket for years but a sob story email usually gets it cancelled.

“My elderly mother was late from her appointment at *******, she had a dizzy spell while we walked to the car.....I’m sure if you check the cctv you see us in the car park waiting for her to settle.”

floggit · November 11, 2017

30 minutes ago, The-Acre said:

Well done you! I once read that private carparks that issue fines aren't enforceable by law, not sure how true that is. I'm glad you won, some wouldn't bother, but I know I would!

Thats correct, up to 2012 they could place a ticket for the driver on the car and hope you paid. In 2012 the Protection of Freedoms Act sched4 allows parking co's to go after the registered keeper.

The game is to appeal as the registered keeper saying the driver passed me the ticket. Technically possible from one hand to the other. The parking co has no way to find a drivers name or address as they only ticket the car. The RK then appeals and to hold the keeper liable the parking co has to jump through a lot of legal hoops and timelines to stay within the law. The only details they can get from the dvla are the Rk details but to hold the keeper liable they have to fulfill the requirements of pofa2012 Sched4. Have a quick read! Took me about 10 tries to make sense of it but it works for both parties. As i dealt with my ticket and it had my full attention the parking co's have offices dealing with 1000's and if you know where to look they can be tripped up.

My ticket stated the car was viewed between 10am -10.40am and they supplied me with photographic evidence of the ticket on the car. . After looking at in for about a week i realised the time stamp on the photos was 9.41am which proved the ticket was written before 10am . Pofa states the ticket must be placed on the vehicle at the END of the viewed period. Pofa is uk law so the ticket was issued falsely.No option but to cancel.

Another winning point. I appealed just before the 28day deadline saying i was registered keeper and gave them my address. Pofa states for a windscreen ticket where the driver is unknown to hold the keeper liable they have to apply to the dvla and send me a notice to keeper before 56 days pass. By giving them my address they didnt bother. By reading pofa i learnt they couldnt hold me liable. They rely on peoples lack of knowledge. Always fight most people with the right advice can get a good result.

Any tickets recieved always check they have complied with their associations code of practice and protection of freedoms act 2012 Sched4. You always get 28days fot the intial appeal.

never rush and pay.

The-Acre · November 11, 2017

Great info/advice!

Bluesman · November 11, 2017

No companies can issue you with a fine. Only the courts and Police can issue you with a fine. What you get from a private parking company is an invoice for a breach of their rules and regulations. If you just ignore their invoice and following letters they will probably take you through the county courts which will almost certainly land you with more charges. If you still ignore whatever the court has deemed your penalty it will almost certainly be moved over to the High Court and their Bailiffs will be meeting you with a much bigger bill and believe you me they do not take no or tears as an answer.

doog442 · November 11, 2017

I beat ParkingEye through POPLA over some malicious payment they wanted from my daughter.

I used MSE site who guided me through the process

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.php?f=163

You just need a bit of patience to go through the appeal process. The beauty is that it costs these parking companies £70 (probably more now) to take it to POPLA....when you win they lose out financially.

Linas.P · March 16, 2018

I almost never pay any penalties without appealing, even if I know I am wrong and in my experience majority of my appeals are accepted and fines removed. There are however major difference between appealing the fine from Council, from Police and form private landlord.

Police fines are most of the time not worth appealing, first of all because most of the time they are correct, secondly because you automatically need to go to court and plead not guilty to entire charge even if you just disagree with part of it, this almost guaranteed to cost you more time an money.

Council fines can be appealed successfully and I have done so in several occasions, but you need to have very good grounds for it e.g. missing sign with evidence. Councils make money this way, literally setting-up traps to catch out motorists and this is not part of their income stream (disgusting) but that is the reason why they are not willing to let you off from anything and will pursue you to the court for smallest fine.

Private landlords fines are most of the time are bogus, not legally valid or enforceable. Just in last year I got like 4 fines which were all false, identifying wrong time etc. and all were cancelled upon appeal. Parking on private land without permit is actually not a crime, it is just breach of implied contract, however it is up-to landlord to prove the signs were present and that you can be held responsible for breaching the contract - they have to do it in court at their own cost and cannot transfer the legal costs to you (unless some exceptional circumstances). So if you get fine from say one of bogus companies like ParkingEye (they are not parking company, they are fraudsters) the worst damage they can do to you, they can enforce you to pay original £100 fine in the court instead of £60 with discount, but the whole process is going to cost them like £1000. As such it is very unlikely to ever be taken to court unless you breaching contract continuously and become real nuisance for the parking company. Obviously, the best way is to at least try to appeal to them if you have grounds for appeal, use POPLA if needed - they are quite reasonable. But if all fails it is still very unlikely they will sue you and even then if they win the worst you need to do is to pay original fine. In cases where you have valid permit 99% of the time the parking companies will cancel the fine - I haven't yet come across the instance where private parking company would try to enforce "permit not displayed", because this would automatically fail in court. Reason behind it - unlike councils, private landlords have to prove "lost business" in court - and if you have valid permit - there is clearly no lost business for them - case automatically fails. The only case I have ever failed to appeal was for ParkingEye in Morrison's car park - I have used Morisson's store and the parking stated "for customers only" There were no clear signs "up-to 2 hours", nor ParkingEye contract displayed near the entrance to car park. There was one near the entrance to the store itself - but that doesn't meet legal requirements. I spent 2h and 24min in the store and they issued the fine. I appealed on the grounds not valid contract was displayed and ParkingEye dismissed my appeal - they sen't me 100 letters in first 2 years threatening me with various actions, but never done anything - I have not heard from them for at least last 2 years now.

As far as parking fines goes my goal is always to incur maximum costs to parking company before paying-up by which times they most of the time abandon their bid to recover it.

On 11/11/2017 at 6:49 PM, Bluesman said:

No companies can issue you with a fine. Only the courts and Police can issue you with a fine. What you get from a private parking company is an invoice for a breach of their rules and regulations. If you just ignore their invoice and following letters they will probably take you through the county courts which will almost certainly land you with more charges. If you still ignore whatever the court has deemed your penalty it will almost certainly be moved over to the High Court and their Bailiffs will be meeting you with a much bigger bill and believe you me they do not take no or tears as an answer.

That is not really true, they can only sue you for original fine instead of discounted amount. The way they increase the fine, they keep selling the fine between different debt collectors which adds collection charge on top of fine before suing. From my experience debt collectors almost always abandon their bind and just sell own the debt to other company when you comeback with the list of holes in their legal reasoning.

Bluesman · March 16, 2018

49 minutes ago, Linas.P said:

I almost never pay any penalties without appealing, even if I know I am wrong and in my experience majority of my appeals are accepted and fines removed. There are however major difference between appealing the fine from Council, from Police and form private landlord.

Police fines are most of the time not worth appealing, first of all because most of the time they are correct, secondly because you automatically need to go to court and plead not guilty to entire charge even if you just disagree with part of it, this almost guaranteed to cost you more time an money.

Council fines can be appealed successfully and I have done so in several occasions, but you need to have very good grounds for it e.g. missing sign with evidence. Councils make money this way, literally setting-up traps to catch out motorists and this is not part of their income stream (disgusting) but that is the reason why they are not willing to let you off from anything and will pursue you to the court for smallest fine.

Private landlords fines are most of the time are bogus, not legally valid or enforceable. Just in last year I got like 4 fines which were all false, identifying wrong time etc. and all were cancelled upon appeal. Parking on private land without permit is actually not a crime, it is just breach of implied contract, however it is up-to landlord to prove the signs were present and that you can be held responsible for breaching the contract - they have to do it in court at their own cost and cannot transfer the legal costs to you (unless some exceptional circumstances). So if you get fine from say one of bogus companies like ParkingEye (they are not parking company, they are fraudsters) the worst damage they can do to you, they can enforce you to pay original £100 fine in the court instead of £60 with discount, but the whole process is going to cost them like £1000. As such it is very unlikely to ever be taken to court unless you breaching contract continuously and become real nuisance for the parking company. Obviously, the best way is to at least try to appeal to them if you have grounds for appeal, use POPLA if needed - they are quite reasonable. But if all fails it is still very unlikely they will sue you and even then if they win the worst you need to do is to pay original fine. In cases where you have valid permit 99% of the time the parking companies will cancel the fine - I haven't yet come across the instance where private parking company would try to enforce "permit not displayed", because this would automatically fail in court. Reason behind it - unlike councils, private landlords have to prove "lost business" in court - and if you have valid permit - there is clearly no lost business for them - case automatically fails. The only case I have ever failed to appeal was for ParkingEye in Morrison's car park - I have used Morisson's store and the parking stated "for customers only" There were no clear signs "up-to 2 hours", nor ParkingEye contract displayed near the entrance to car park. There was one near the entrance to the store itself - but that doesn't meet legal requirements. I spent 2h and 24min in the store and they issued the fine. I appealed on the grounds not valid contract was displayed and ParkingEye dismissed my appeal - they sen't me 100 letters in first 2 years threatening me with various actions, but never done anything - I have not heard from them for at least last 2 years now.

As far as parking fines goes my goal is always to incur maximum costs to parking company before paying-up by which times they most of the time abandon their bid to recover it.

That is not really true, they can only sue you for original fine instead of discounted amount. The way they increase the fine, they keep selling the fine between different debt collectors which adds collection charge on top of fine before suing. From my experience debt collectors almost always abandon their bind and just sell own the debt to other company when you comeback with the list of holes in their legal reasoning.

You miss the point Linas. Fines can only be issued by the police, traffic wardens, which are dealt with via the Magistrate Court, those who get Parking Charge Notices are issued by private companies for infringing their parking rules which are on private ground, supermarkets etc these PCNs are just invoices and will be dealt with through the County Court system.

Linas.P · March 16, 2018

I don't miss the point, I know the difference very well. I just generically refer to them as "parking fines/tickets" even though you are correct - for parking on private land you just get invoices even though most of enforcement companies calls them PCN's in the same fashion as council or police - sounds more serious/official I guess. Overall, it serves the same purpose, but the enforcement procedure is completely different - I would almost call private landlord "fines" non-enforceable, in almost all possible scenarios it will cost more for the company to enforce it, then they would get back. They only do that from principle to scare people, but if they would need to do it on bigger scale their fraudulent business would quickly become unsustainable.

The standard procedure is that they issue £100 fine which is reduced to £60 if you pay in 14 days. That is smart psychologic game they play making impression that you gaining something by complying, whereas in reality there are very slim chances of actually enforcing the "fine". They game is that they send 100 bogus fines and 30 of them going to get paid because people won't question and will get scared, other 70 will never get paid except of 1 in a million where they will do publicity stunt and takes it to the highest court they can. The other 70 which have at least the slimmest chance of enforcing are sold to debt collectors for something like £5-£20 based on chances to enforce it. The debt collectors game is to send scary letter which costs them maybe £1, again probably 10 out of 70 gets paid, another 60 are sold to another company for few £ and it goes circles like that. I guess in the end like 50 fines are never paid.

One other fact to note - by selling you personal information and "fine" parking company breaches the data protection law. Actually, I know there are plants now that DVLA will stop selling personal data, meaning fraudsters like ParkingEye will be blown out of water. That is because you not in debt to them until the court actually says so, they have no right to transfer your data to third party collectors. When I raise this with debt collectors and threaten to sue them for breach of data protection, I almost always never hear from that company again, few month later different debt collection company sends me letter and everything goes through the same loop again. Eventually, after like a year nobody wants to buy the debt because it is clear that debtor is legal nutcase and won't budge without the court... and going to court is not their goal, their goal is to scare people to pay quoting non-existent laws and make quick £100 on their £21 investment.

Bluesman · March 16, 2018

2 hours ago, Linas.P said:

I don't miss the point, I know the difference very well. I just generically refer to them as "parking fines/tickets" even though you are correct - for parking on private land you just get invoices even though most of enforcement companies calls them PCN's in the same fashion as council or police - sounds more serious/official I guess. Overall, it serves the same purpose, but the enforcement procedure is completely different - I would almost call private landlord "fines" non-enforceable, in almost all possible scenarios it will cost more for the company to enforce it, then they would get back. They only do that from principle to scare people, but if they would need to do it on bigger scale their fraudulent business would quickly become unsustainable.

The standard procedure is that they issue £100 fine which is reduced to £60 if you pay in 14 days. That is smart psychologic game they play making impression that you gaining something by complying, whereas in reality there are very slim chances of actually enforcing the "fine". They game is that they send 100 bogus fines and 30 of them going to get paid because people won't question and will get scared, other 70 will never get paid except of 1 in a million where they will do publicity stunt and takes it to the highest court they can. The other 70 which have at least the slimmest chance of enforcing are sold to debt collectors for something like £5-£20 based on chances to enforce it. The debt collectors game is to send scary letter which costs them maybe £1, again probably 10 out of 70 gets paid, another 60 are sold to another company for few £ and it goes circles like that. I guess in the end like 50 fines are never paid.

One other fact to note - by selling you personal information and "fine" parking company breaches the data protection law. Actually, I know there are plants now that DVLA will stop selling personal data, meaning fraudsters like ParkingEye will be blown out of water. That is because you not in debt to them until the court actually says so, they have no right to transfer your data to third party collectors. When I raise this with debt collectors and threaten to sue them for breach of data protection, I almost always never hear from that company again, few month later different debt collection company sends me letter and everything goes through the same loop again. Eventually, after like a year nobody wants to buy the debt because it is clear that debtor is legal nutcase and won't budge without the court... and going to court is not their goal, their goal is to scare people to pay quoting non-existent laws and make quick £100 on their £21 investment.

15

To keep misnaming PCNs as fines confuse the issue especially to those that receive them. They are not fines the are just charges and to keep referring to them as fines is just plain wrong. To that end, your second paragraph is wrong where you are referring to fines as they aren't they are just charges. To put your mind at rest I hate these private pirates and the sooner they are put out of business the better.

I am surprised that someone who is so pedantic about some things " You don't need to be sorry, but at the same time factually both mk2 and mk3 uses same D4S bulbs and very similar" can be so unconcerned about using the incorrect terms on other subjects.

I agree totally with your third paragraph.

Linas.P · March 16, 2018

I probably, should be sorry as well then...

My only goal was to get to the point with layman terms without overthinking about specific legal terminology. As well I put them in the quote marks (mostly) to highlight that they are just called as such, but not actually real "fines", you are correct - they are not fines.

On the flip side I believe there must be a way of enforcing parking order on private land, however the way it is currently enforced is as you said is "piracy". Going back to ParkingEye - they call themselves "parking enforcement and management company", whereas in reality they neither manage nor enforce parking order - they are only trying to catch out unsuspecting people and lure them in paying some questionable charges. Like in my case - I would have been glad to pay for that extra 30 min I spent shopping in Morrison's, but they don't even give that option - you one minute over and you have to pay £100 charge, which is ridiculous, as there is no way they can claim they lost any business when parking is free for 2 hours and I overstayed for few minutes, that just doesn't make sense.

At the same time there are other companies which are completely fine, which have installed proper barriers, ANPR's, payment machines etc. And provides with legitimate way for paying for parking after free time has passed e.g. 2 hours free, then £4 for 3rd hours, £6 for 4 hours etc. As well hey have legal basis for the charges, because there are barriers, there are clear terms and conditions an you would not even be able to leave without paying what you owe. Whereas the "pirate" companies are no interested to clearly informing you about free time, or charging you for overstaying - they just want for you to overstay so they can jump-up with their guns and send you £100 charge straight away.

I like what they did with clampers, which are no longer an issue nowadays - same should happen to camera cowboys. For example I now got 2 fines from some company "managing" parking for local Lidl. I don't really go shopping there, but I often pick-up my girlfriend from the railway station, as there are no parking by the station she just comes to Lidl parking for pick-up and I don't even park there, just basically drive around the and leave. Somehow the company managed to send me charge twice asking for £60, one time stating that I overstayed allowed 45 min by 4hours (4h45min) and second time by nearly 6 hours?! surely that is fraudulent and illegal for them to even claim that and they must have forged the time stamps on the pictures from CCTV.. at most I spend 1min in the parking at the time - how comes they can have 6 and 4 hours wrong.. twice. Anyway.. I agree - this has to stop. The sooner the better.

Malc1 · March 16, 2018

Floggit/Steve wow what a crap employer you have ............................ 22yrs and they won't lift a finger to help you .......... do you want to name and shame ?

I'd happily buy a share and go to the next shareholders meeting and raise kane for you if it's a PLC

Malc .

bobmc · March 16, 2018

9 minutes ago, Malc1 said:

Floggit/Steve wow what a crap employer you have ............................ 22yrs and they won't lift a finger to help you .......... do you want to name and shame ?

I'd happily buy a share and go to the next shareholders meeting and raise kane for you if it's a PLC

Malc .

This is my take. I need a (free) permit to park at my workplace but I know that any ticket would be cancelled should I say - be in a courtesy car or hire car - just by asking. I am after all a valid user (by the fact of my employment) and if had to pay for the permit (as my daughters do as they work for the NHS) then I would also say that non-display of the permit should not invalidate my right to use the facility.

floggit · March 16, 2018

12 minutes ago, bobmc said:

This is my take. I need a (free) permit to park at my workplace but I know that any ticket would be cancelled should I say - be in a courtesy car or hire car - just by asking. I am after all a valid user (by the fact of my employment) and if had to pay for the permit (as my daughters do as they work for the NHS) then I would also say that non-display of the permit should not invalidate my right to use the facility.

Exactly, and as im required to be there at contracted hours im not stopping anyome else from parking anyway. Not sure why my company brought them in there never was ant big issue with parking. Now there is lol.

31 minutes ago, Malc1 said:

Floggit/Steve wow what a crap employer you have ............................ 22yrs and they won't lift a finger to help you .......... do you want to name and shame ?

I'd happily buy a share and go to the next shareholders meeting and raise kane for you if it's a PLC

Malc .

As its done n dusted ,no, ill let it sleep. Iol. They have been really good to me on other issues in my time there.

Linas.P · March 16, 2018

2 hours ago, bobmc said:

This is my take. I need a (free) permit to park at my workplace but I know that any ticket would be cancelled should I say - be in a courtesy car or hire car - just by asking. I am after all a valid user (by the fact of my employment) and if had to pay for the permit (as my daughters do as they work for the NHS) then I would also say that non-display of the permit should not invalidate my right to use the facility.

That is correct, I would not be surprised to get the ticket, but at the same time they should cancel it straight away when you prove you have valid permit. Like where I live I have permit to park in my specific place. It had felt of the windshield few times and once I got ticket, but company cancelled it straight away when I proven then I have permit.. now they remember my car an no longer sticks any tickets even if permit is not visible.

As for why companies gets these so called "parking management/enforcement" companies - it is income. You don't need to pay them - they pay you to enforce "parking order" in your premises. Their business model is to hire a venue and to catch as many unsuspecting visitors, obviously you as an owner need to consider how that going to impact your customers. Some companies which values their customers chooses serious management companies, which install proper barriers, ensures security and mans the car park, but shopping centers or public places which works on volumes and not relationship get harshest and dumbest companies like ParkingEye or similar.

Malc1 · March 17, 2018

I had Parking Eye try to "fine " me a while back whilst in a Aldi carpark. Aldi said they tried to help with their PE "fine" but never managed to sort it out at all ( I no longer had my till receipt nor paid on my debit card ) ........ so impasse ................ I just told them to b.gger off and after lots of acrimonious calls and email correspondence with Aldi and absolutely NO way of phoning PE ( uncontactable by human endeavour on a 1 2 1 basis ) I vowed just never to use Aldi again

PE stopped contacting me in the end BUT as for Aldi, well, crap customer care tbh

Malc

floggit · March 17, 2018

6 hours ago, Malc1 said:

I had Parking Eye try to "fine " me a while back whilst in a Aldi carpark. Aldi said they tried to help with their PE "fine" but never managed to sort it out at all ( I no longer had my till receipt nor paid on my debit card ) ........ so impasse ................ I just told them to b.gger off and after lots of acrimonious calls and email correspondence with Aldi and absolutely NO way of phoning PE ( uncontactable by human endeavour on a 1 2 1 basis ) I vowed just never to use Aldi again

PE stopped contacting me in the end BUT as for Aldi, well, crap customer care tbh

Malc

Never ever, call a parking co. They record call but you will have no record of the conversation. Email is best as its give a trail. Another trick they use after the toothless debt collector letters is to go quiet. People think they give up but in reality they have 6yrs to chase people. They give it a while then start again believing people will have forgotten any relevant information, while they still have it in a file. Hopefully your past the 6. As for contacting companies to cancel its a case of always researching the ceo and contacting directly. Customer services or store managers are usually useless.

The parking co aim is to get people to pay out of panic and belief they have no course of action when actually with a bit of research they can usually be beaten.

Malc1 · March 17, 2018

was about 3 years ago so they still might try to get me then ............... oh, the relevant car has now been sold AND I think either gone to Poland or been scrapped !

I await their call with fear and trepidation

Malc

Rabbers · March 19, 2018

Just an anecdote to illustrate how dishonest some private parking companies can be, especially when they pay their employees by the

number of tickets they write.

Last year in Denmark, having parked in a metered zone, I returned to my car and found a warden writing a ticket - or, rather, tapping one into

an electronic pad - for no apparent reason. When I asked for an explanation, he muttered something unintelligible and shuffled off, clearly

embarrassed, only to be stopped after a few yards by a policemen and a couple of civilians who engaged him in what appeared to be an

unpleasant conversation with much finger-wagging before he managed to detach himself and drive off in his own car. When I asked what

exactly had occurred, I was told that this particular warden's activities had been being watched for some time by some of his previous

victims, mainly local residents, who suspected him of inventing false parking offences. It seems that the stripes of some individual spots,

including the one where I had parked, were invisible when photographed from certain angles, especially on wet and murky conditions like

on that particular day. The policemen then took a statement from me, to which he added a photograph of his own evidencing that I was

correctly parked inside the short unworn bits of stripe between which I had aimed the nose of my car. He finally gave me a file reference

number for use if I received a fine (which would have been via an international collection agency in the case of a foreign-registered car

like mine), though he thought this unlikely given that he expected the warden to be suspended or fired and his recent tickets cancelled.

And indeed, having received no fine after nine months, I like to think this is exactly what happened.

Linas.P · March 19, 2018

Parking wardens is most disgusting and useless work. They literally add no value to public... whilst, I do agree somebody needs to take care of illegally parked cars, there are certainly better way - if it is bad enough then tow it away! It helps nobody that some w***** stick the ticket on it, neither they look at anything else - I mean crime can happen in front of their nose and wardens would do nothing.

I think it would be much more sensible if traffic wardens would become part of police (as it was historically), because that would improve overall public safety. Secondly, nobody should get paid by the number of tickets they issue as it clearly encourages foul play. Thirdly, wardens have "quotas" to meet - so in fundamentally it is not in councils/private landlords interest to get parking in order, actually quite opposite - they create unclear situations and markings to confuse people and when that fails simply tickets random cars to meet quotas, just like that! Then obviously, it comes to registered keeper to prove it was parked correctly which sometimes is quite hard and almost impossible say on leased/company car - you just going to get ticket transferred to you to pay without chance to defend.

Bluesman · March 19, 2018

1 hour ago, Linas.P said:

Parking wardens is most disgusting and useless work. They literally add no value to public... whilst, I do agree somebody needs to take care of illegally parked cars, there are certainly better way - if it is bad enough then tow it away! It helps nobody that some w***** stick the ticket on it, neither they look at anything else - I mean crime can happen in front of their nose and wardens would do nothing.

I think it would be much more sensible if traffic wardens would become part of police (as it was historically), because that would improve overall public safety. Secondly, nobody should get paid by the number of tickets they issue as it clearly encourages foul play. Thirdly, wardens have "quotas" to meet - so in fundamentally it is not in councils/private landlords interest to get parking in order, actually quite opposite - they create unclear situations and markings to confuse people and when that fails simply tickets random cars to meet quotas, just like that! Then obviously, it comes to registered keeper to prove it was parked correctly which sometimes is quite hard and almost impossible say on leased/company car - you just going to get ticket transferred to you to pay without chance to defend.

I live in a small village and as a disabled driver with a blue badge, I am always pleased to see them putting tickets on cars whose owners are just bone idle and lazy and have absolutely no concern for those who the bays were intended for in the first place. So thumbs up to them, however, I do agree that they should be brought back into the police stations.

Britprius · March 19, 2018

11 minutes ago, Bluesman said:

I live in a small village and as a disabled driver with a blue badge, I am always pleased to see them putting tickets on cars whose owners are just bone idle and lazy and have absolutely no concern for those who the bays were intended for in the first place. So thumbs up to them, however, I do agree that they should be brought back into the police stations.

I am in exactly the same situation as you, and agree on many occasions I come across vehicles parked in disabled bays without displaying a blue badge. I must admit last year I received a ticket for parking in a disabled bay while displaying a blue badge. My offence was that my badge had expired by 4 days. I had a word with the local council about issuing reminders for renewal of blue badges since they last for three years, and are easy to overlook. I pointed out that even a small increase in price for the badge would be reasonable to cover the small cost involved. They have agreed to look into this.

The council also cancelled the parking fine even though I said I would not contest it as it was my responsibility to check the date.

John

dutchie01 · March 19, 2018

2 hours ago, Linas.P said:

Parking wardens is most disgusting and useless work. They literally add no value to public... whilst, I do agree somebody needs to take care of illegally parked cars, there are certainly better way - if it is bad enough then tow it away! It helps nobody that some w***** stick the ticket on it, neither they look at anything else - I mean crime can happen in front of their nose and wardens would do nothing.

I think it would be much more sensible if traffic wardens would become part of police (as it was historically), because that would improve overall public safety. Secondly, nobody should get paid by the number of tickets they issue as it clearly encourages foul play. Thirdly, wardens have "quotas" to meet - so in fundamentally it is not in councils/private landlords interest to get parking in order, actually quite opposite - they create unclear situations and markings to confuse people and when that fails simply tickets random cars to meet quotas, just like that! Then obviously, it comes to registered keeper to prove it was parked correctly which sometimes is quite hard and almost impossible say on leased/company car - you just going to get ticket transferred to you to pay without chance to defend.

I respect everybody that works and parking warden is a job just like every other. By insulting them by saying they are most disgusting and do useless work you are way out of line Linas P. shame on you.

On top of that i find they do excellent work as without any form of control city centres and even villages could become unliveable as cars would simply be parked all over the place.

And as you apparently hate them to bits it would be good news for you to hear they will most likely all be without jobs in the foreseeable future. They are already gone in The Netherlands as they are replaced by camera cars, toyota prius with 360 degree camareas that simply scans license plates on 2 sides of the road simultanously.

Linas.P · March 19, 2018

Job to invent offences - from where I look at it, they are just criminal with the license by another name. Committing the crime, be that by fraud or ticketing wrong car or in ambiguous situation - yes it is disgusting, such criminal activity is not the job.

It would be fair to note and I am guilty for not clearly pointing it out, that it is not the actual people who are disgusting, but probably their employees by creating such positions and working environment where they directly set them to penalise and harm. There is no other way about it - how on earth parking warden can have quota to meet? What if there are no parking offences, what if all cars are parked correctly - those guys are under pressure to invent offences, that is literally in their contract and you saying there is nothing fundamentally wrong with it?

It could ANRP on the car, but it changes nothing if it is still inventing the offences.

As situation described above by both @Britprius and @Bluesman - how did parking warden helped exactly? Both of those guys came and the place was taken by unauthorised driver, sticking the ticked helps nobody - most useless job ever, if the car would be swiftly towed away that would be usefull. Secondly, I wanted to point out that drivers are under terrible pressure finding parking spaces as council did everything to destroy every single one of them and very often you have very good reason to be where you are with car and simply have no space in 5 miles to park, even if you are willing to pay fair fee for it. So the issue is lack of parking spaces, fundamental under sight of (or deliberate act to destroy the) infrastructure. This in turn leaves driver with no option, but to park "somewhere" and than in turn leaves people with disabilities with no space. The ultimate culprit is lack of infrastructure, but it made to look like the issue are the drivers.