Parking ticket enquiry

Well done Baz, “Up the revolution”, against these little Hitlers :diablo:
Jim.

Lincoln .7

I posted this sometime back, about a wheel clamper who got a bit flustered!:D

http://forum.keypublishing.com/showpost.php?p=1760725&postcount=649

Baz

Only time will tell, Jim 🙂

Jim, I had to laugh at that 😀

Yeh! Brilliant, I wonder if they have any more gems like that tucked away for a particular Post?.for future reference.:diablo:
Jim.

Lincoln .7

PeeDee. It was there, I can assure you buddy, and it was seen by A.N. Other too.
I don’t speak German either, but may well be if it hadn’t been for our lads and lassies in WW11.
Jim.

Lincoln .7

You couldn’t make it up, but on the bottom of this page is an advert for “Civil Parking Enforcement Officer”

Is this Keys way of telling us it has a twisted sence of humour?.:eek:

Jim.

Lincoln .7

My adverts are in German. I don’t see parkuhr or Parkplatz Offizier.

Jim, I had to laugh at that 😀

You couldn’t make it up, but on the bottom of this page is an advert for “Civil Parking Enforcement Officer”

Is this Keys way of telling us it has a twisted sence of humour?.:eek:

Jim.

Lincoln .7

If they were going to take her £30, I was keen for the council to spend some of it on some research

What you wanted to do was ensure that money used on some fruitless exercise. You said yourself that the appeal failed – therefore pointless.

People park illegally all the time thinking they’ll get away with it. Kind of why traffic wardens exist I guess.

As to T5, I’m glad I’m not a Wokingham council tax payer. I would be very irritated that council employees were wasting their time pursuing pointless freedom of information requests.

Pointless? How exactly? We appealed to the council and brought to their attention some of the observations made on the street in question. They decided to reject our appeal and insisted that we pay the fine. But on the same day, other cars had also been ticketed, and walking down the street countless times over the following weeks, I saw other cars with tickets on them too. Were these people that were deliberately parking illegally in the hope that nobody would spot them – in one of the busiest towns in the south? I don’t think so. These were people who genuinely believed that they could park there.

If ever I am not happy or wish to challenge the council on, well, pretty much anything, I will continue to use this rather brilliant service – regardless of the time ‘wasted’ on research by council employees. There will come a time when you might want to make a ‘pointless’ request yourself.

Sorry, but you deserved it. 🙂 Just pay it; it’s only £25 after all and you were in the wrong.

Someone had to….:rolleyes: 😀 aha.

Thanks again for all the replies everyone, it’s interesting to hear your stories as well so keep them coming if you have them.

Tom

T5.

I like your style ! Your opening para. is quite correct – hence my previous question to Future Pilot. Always ignore the ‘naysayers’ and have a go. Try and make life difficult for those who want to make your life difficult. This matter under discussion is really about making as much money as possible by the service provider to the detriment of the service user.

Using almost any interpretation of ‘natural justice’ will show that there is very little slack in the system of dishing out penalty parking notices. A minute over your time – a foot over the yellow or white line – that’s enough to merit the award of a fine.

I urge anyone who has a doubt about the legality of their Local Authority PCN to pay up together with a letter detailing their complaint, to keep copies and sue for the return of their money thru the Small Claims Court. If your claim has merit, the issuing authority will not defend it on the grounds of expense.

The reason why apparently only about one in a hundred people ticketed, ever bother to challenge the fine is because most cannot be bothered.

John Green

Preferably none just saying “you deserved it” etc. Thanks guys :).
Tom

Sorry, but you deserved it. 🙂 Just pay it; it’s only £25 after all and you were in the wrong.

As to T5, I’m glad I’m not a Wokingham council tax payer. I would be very irritated that council employees were wasting their time pursuing pointless freedom of information requests.

If it was a private parking company, I would suggest that you tear the ticket to pieces and forget all about. After buying your details from the DVLA and bombarding you with a countless number of threatening letters, these sorts of companies soon give up.

Being the council, however, you might as well pay the bill (whilst it is more affordable at £25) and learn from the mistake. A relative of mine tried to challenge a parking ticket with Reading Borough Council last year but her appeal was rejected and she was forced to pay. Looking at the photographs taken upon returning to her car, I agreed with her that the signage was inadequate. Let’s face it, few people are going to intentionally park illegally, and she honestly believed that the space she was occupying entitled her to 1 hour of free parking. Two signs positioned next to one another meant that there was some confusion and she was actually in a bay for permit holders only.

Keen to claw back some of the £30 fine, I decided to make a freedom of information request to the council. If they were going to take her £30, I was keen for the council to spend some of it on some research. The street in question had perhaps a dozen parking spaces, so I wanted to know how many tickets had been issued in the 12 months leading up to her ticket being issued – 1,703 was the answer (almost 4.5 per day – a high number, I thought, especially considering there were no meters at the time so nobody could overstay on a pre-paid ticket). I also asked what percentage of ticketed drivers in this particular street appealed their fines – only 1.23% apparently (I’m still not convinced by that figure – do only a little over 1 in a 100 people challenge a parking ticket?). And of them, 20% apparently claimed that the signage was not clear and there was confusion about where they could and could not park. And finally, I wanted to know how this particular street compared to others in Reading as a ticketing hotspot and was told that it was the second most ticketed street in the whole of the rather large town – second to the Oxford Road, which is a road stretching for several miles (with ample parking space and more opportunities to catch out careless drivers).

Pay it.
I hate the system as much as anyone, but it is very seldom beaten. One of Wifey’s pals is a Traffic Warden…and to prevent people getting away with it, they take down a lot of details and photo’s of the car. This includes Valve positions on the wheels (For the “No return in two hours rule”), warmth from the front grilles, photo’s – preferably with the restriction sign in shot.

Wait till you get a £45 fine from a private car park scam, or a Wheel clamp scam of £180, then moan.

We did park an 18 truck on the grass on a red route :-). I think it was around 50 quid if paid in the first week.

[QUOTE=benyboy;1824886]Think your self lucky our ticket in farnborough (the one near Biggin Hill) a couple of weeks ago was £125.

So, Contrare to popular belief, there is no basic starting off price like the £25.00 the O.P. has got to pay?.
I thought it was a standard scale to which everyone came under, mind you Ben, you didn’t say how many DAYS you were there unloading;)
Jim.

Lincoln .7

Your best option is to ask on somewhere like pepipoo

http://www.pepipoo.com/

IIRC your options are far fewer with Council tickets than private tickets. As others have said, this is quite a cheap fine!

Hi Future Pilot. I know you stated it was the end of the day, and in theory the little Hitlers should have left off work, however, don’t forget the Police patrol Officers can also issue tickets whilst on patrol.
Jim.

Lincoln .7

I don’t think they give people parking tickets anymore. If they were bothered enough by the parking then they would probably have the car towed.

Think your self lucky our ticket in farnborough (the one near Biggin Hill) a couple of weeks ago was £125. The guy must have been some sort of ninja to put it on without us seeing, we were unloading at the time.

Hi Tom. Just look on the bright side, it’s only money at the end of the day, and not a bad R.T.A. with you injured.:)
Jim.

Lincoln .7