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Parking ticket revolt in Britain



 
 
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  #1  
Old June 8th, 2004, 10:58 AM
Earl
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Default 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




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  #2  
Old June 8th, 2004, 11:28 AM
Cygne 2003
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Default Parking ticket revolt in Britain

non-smoking restaurants in London
http://www.smokefreeworld.com/london.shtml
  #3  
Old June 8th, 2004, 12:35 PM
Mark Hewitt
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Default Parking ticket revolt in Britain


"Cygne 2003" wrote in message
...
non-smoking restaurants in London


Quit your ****ing spam would you?!!!


  #4  
Old June 8th, 2004, 12:41 PM
Mark Hewitt
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Default 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.



  #5  
Old June 8th, 2004, 09:44 PM
Arwel Parry
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Default 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/
  #6  
Old June 8th, 2004, 10:21 PM
JohnT
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Default 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


  #7  
Old June 9th, 2004, 12:32 AM
Alec
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Default 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


  #8  
Old June 10th, 2004, 03:28 PM
~~ Ray ~~
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Default 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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