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Parking ticket revolt in Britain
And of course, American tourists beware, especially since
"they" also drive on the wrong side of the car and the wrong side of the road. Earl ***** Parking officers pounce on unwary British drivers Lisette Alvarez NYT Tuesday, June 08, 2004 LONDON Nadhim Zahawi was headed home on his scooter earlier in the year when a car lurched his way, hurling him into the middle of a busy road. As he lay in an ambulance at the scene, his left leg broken like a breadstick, a bystander ran up to his stretcher to inform him, incredulously, that a parking enforcement officer had just ticketed his mangled scooter. In that instant, Zahawi became a poster boy of sorts for a parking enforcement system ‘‘gone mad,'' as he puts it. ‘‘They are totally ruthless,'' said Zahawi, managing director of YouGov, a polling company. ‘‘The system needs reining back.'' Zahawi appealed his £100 ticket, and won, but not before being told that the officer had erred only because she had not realized she was on an accident scene. ‘‘I mean, there was debris everywhere,'' Zahawi said. ‘‘I was in the back of an ambulance. I don't know how she could have missed a great big ambulance and a police van.'' In a country as densely packed as England, clashes between motorists and parking enforcement officers have risen to absurd heights. Stories from aggrieved motorists, who say they feel tricked, dogged and hunted, while their pleas for leniency go ignored, are legion. Mothers with babies in their arms, disabled people in wheelchairs and people weak with cancer have all complained publicly about the heartlessness of the system. Derek Scott, for example, stopped to ask a parking officer in London for directions, only to be ticketed by a second officer as he listened to the instructions. Brian and Sheila Sharp received a Lon don parking ticket by mail — but they had not been to London in 20 years. The most common complaints involve ghost tickets — tickets people never receive, yet are penalized for not paying. ‘‘It is getting close to meltdown out there because of the number of scams,'' said Barrie Segal, founder of AppealNow.com, a popular Web site that helps motorists appeal tickets. On the other hand, parking officers, once routinely spat upon and lashed with expletives, now face an upswing in serious violence: In Oxfordshire, a parking officer was pummelled by a gang of youths in broad daylight recently; in Warwick, one was knocked to the ground; in Rugby, a parking officer was pushed over a wall; and in Lincolnshire, one was mowed down by a car. They are Britain's most reviled workers, according to one recent survey, beating out telemarketers, real estate agents, bouncers and people who work in public relations. It is no wonder that parking officers, many of them recent immigrants (a fact that has led some columnists to say there is a touch of racism at play) are calling to be outfitted with stab-proof vests in at least one neighborhood, Hammersmith. That is, if they have not already quit their £6-an-hour jobs. Turnover, say the spokesmen for the private parking companies who employ them, is quite high. "It's a pretty crummy job, all in all," said Aiden Grimes, a union organizer. "They are under immense pressure and stress." The intense conflicts began with a 1991 law that decriminalized parking enforcement, shifting the job from the police to local councils. The local councils, in turn, mostly farmed the job out to private companies, who sign contracts that often specify how many tickets parking officers are expected to issue. Local councils — London has 34 — can keep the revenue, as long as they invest it in transportation. Finding a ticket on a car windshield is nothing to shrug off. In London, a ticket for an expired parking meter is £50, about $90, a sum that doubles to £100 after 14 days. The sum continues to increase exponentially. Appeals are permitted. But a motorist who fails to pay can soon find a bailiff at the door or a clamp attached to a car tire, or both. Westminster, in central London, faces a daily onslaught of 135,000 cars trying to park in 43,000 parking spaces. This imbalance brought Westminster's council, which has been accused of run ning a revenue-raising mill and encouraging aggressive tactics, £27.1 million, nearly $50 million, in 2002-2003. Councils in London collected an estimated £162 million from about 9.6 million tickets for 2002-2003, according to a survey by AppealNow.Com. Only New York City, which expects to raise $540 million from tickets this fiscal year, dwarfs London in revenue. ‘‘It's pretty big business, it's fair to say,'' said a spokesman for Westminster's city council, who, as is customary in Britain, did not want his name mentioned. Critics say that shifting the task from the police to the local councils changed the job's ethos from one that ensured smooth traffic to one that enriches the council. ‘‘The old-style traffic warden would march up and down roads all day, telling people to hop to it,'' said Kevin Delaney, head of traffic and road safety for the Royal Automobile Club. ‘‘You only got a ticket if you ignored him.'' ‘‘The parking attendant will watch you park illegally, wait until you've left and give you a ticket,'' he said. ‘‘That's how we go to where we are now.'' For their own benefit, parking officers are given no discretion on the job. If they start to write a ticket, they must finish it and instruct the driver to appeal. ‘‘The issue of discretion is fraught with danger,'' said Christopher Widgdor, a spokesman for APCOA, a parking company. Still, council officials, and even critics, say motorists have conveniently forgotten the days when streets were tied in knots by defiant parkers. ‘‘It went from ridiculous to one extreme to ridiculous to another extreme, and didn't stop for sublime in the middle,'' Delaney said. The mood is so tense on the street now that a detente of sorts may be at hand. In Manchester, a city ridiculed for its ticketing zeal, the system was recently ditched for a kinder, gentler one. And even Westminster is reconsidering its policies: Delivery drivers are being given more leeway; parking officers are receiving better training. Pay for some of them may even go up. ‘‘If we can get to a situation where people have more public empathy, it would help,'' the Westminster spokesman said. ‘‘Better than having to send them out dressed like Robocop.'' The New York Times Copyright |
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Parking ticket revolt in Britain
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Parking ticket revolt in Britain
"Cygne 2003" wrote in message ... non-smoking restaurants in London Quit your ****ing spam would you?!!! |
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Parking ticket revolt in Britain
"Earl" wrote in message om... And of course, American tourists beware, especially since "they" also drive on the wrong side of the car and the wrong side of the road. As do you ;-) I agree with the article however. Traffic enforcement has gotten completely out of hand here in the past 10 years or so, and it's all down to money. Used to be parking enforcement and speed enforcement was done in the name of safety, and fines handed out as deterrents which matched the severity of the crime. Now things are different in that the people doing the enforcement are allowed to keep the fines they create. It means that they are put under so much pressure to be over zealous. Just like the example in the article, used to be a traffic warden would tell you not to park there, or at least give you 5 minutes and give you a telling off when you get back. Not anymore, they don't get commission for handing out tickets, however their jobs are at risk if they don't meet revenue targets. There was a story just a week or so ago about one traffic warden who was fired for not bringing in enough revenue. He said that he only gave people tickets when they actually deserved to get tickets, not like many of his work mates who would ticket a car even for a minor infraction. Then of course there is the speed enforcement, cases of people going 1 or 2 mph over the speed limit, that's £60 and three points thankyou. IMO the law on traffic policing needs to be changed. Sure, go ahead and fine people for violations, but don't let the people doing the enforcing keep the money. Making that change was bound to create massive corruption, and that's just what has happened. |
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Parking ticket revolt in Britain
In message , Earl
writes The mood is so tense on the street now that a detente of sorts may be at hand. In Manchester, a city ridiculed for its ticketing zeal, the system was recently ditched for a kinder, gentler one. I should hope so, too. Last year in Manchester a bus was given a parking ticket for being stopped at a bus stop while it was picking up passengers. -- Arwel Parry http://www.cartref.demon.co.uk/ |
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Parking ticket revolt in Britain
"Arwel Parry" wrote in message ... In message , Earl writes The mood is so tense on the street now that a detente of sorts may be at hand. In Manchester, a city ridiculed for its ticketing zeal, the system was recently ditched for a kinder, gentler one. I should hope so, too. Last year in Manchester a bus was given a parking ticket for being stopped at a bus stop while it was picking up passengers. Did it get clamped? JohnT |
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Parking ticket revolt in Britain
"JohnT" wrote in message ... "Arwel Parry" wrote in message ... In message , Earl writes The mood is so tense on the street now that a detente of sorts may be at hand. In Manchester, a city ridiculed for its ticketing zeal, the system was recently ditched for a kinder, gentler one. I should hope so, too. Last year in Manchester a bus was given a parking ticket for being stopped at a bus stop while it was picking up passengers. Did it get clamped? No, but because of adverse publicity for a host of mistakes, the parking enforcement operator (Control Plus) had their contract terminated by the City Council and replaced by NCP. Alec |
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Parking ticket revolt in Britain
which re-employed the same people, doing the same job.
"Alec" wrote in message ... "JohnT" wrote in message ... "Arwel Parry" wrote in message ... In message , Earl writes The mood is so tense on the street now that a detente of sorts may be at hand. In Manchester, a city ridiculed for its ticketing zeal, the system was recently ditched for a kinder, gentler one. I should hope so, too. Last year in Manchester a bus was given a parking ticket for being stopped at a bus stop while it was picking up passengers. Did it get clamped? No, but because of adverse publicity for a host of mistakes, the parking enforcement operator (Control Plus) had their contract terminated by the City Council and replaced by NCP. Alec |
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