God damn Traffic Wardens

[Topcat]

I went over to my aunt's house this morning to pick her up and bring her back to mine for the day, she just came out of hospital after having a stroke this week and is unable to drive now.

She has a dropped curb outside her house and is constantly being blocked in, she lives in Southall and the area is always really busy and today when I got there the only place to park was in a pay & display just right next to her house (there are only 4 bays there). I pulled up and parked and didn't even think about getting a ticket as it is Sunday, I let myself in, she was waiting ready for me, I checked her back door was locked and grabbed her cardigan from upstairs and when we came out there was a god damn traffic warden taking photos of my car and the ticket was already slapped on the windscreen, he was in a car himself parked up in a pay & display bay It took my aunt ages to walk the short distance to my car as she is disabled anyway an he watched her and then said try and appeal but you probably wont win

It makes me sick, whenever she is blocked in and has missed important hospital appts etc the Council and Police don't want to know. Still my fault I didn't read the sign

[civic-babe]

Thats terrible, what a plonker that traffic warden, he could have made an expection, but like you said you didn't read the sign...

[peter newton]

Originally Posted by Topcat

I went over to my aunt's house this morning to pick her up and bring her back to mine for the day, she just came out of hospital after having a stroke this week and is unable to drive now.

She has a dropped curb outside her house and is constantly being blocked in, she lives in Southall and the area is always really busy and today when I got there the only place to park was in a pay & display just right next to her house (there are only 4 bays there). I pulled up and parked and didn't even think about getting a ticket as it is Sunday, I let myself in, she was waiting ready for me, I checked her back door was locked and grabbed her cardigan from upstairs and when we came out there was a god damn traffic warden taking photos of my car and the ticket was already slapped on the windscreen, he was in a car himself parked up in a pay & display bay It took my aunt ages to walk the short distance to my car as she is disabled anyway an he watched her and then said try and appeal but you probably wont win

It makes me sick, whenever she is blocked in and has missed important hospital appts etc the Council and Police don't want to know. Still my fault I didn't read the sign

at the end of time you do the crime you pay for it ,
it is not fair what more can i say.
like speed cameras years ago you would ge pulled over by a traffic cop he had a certain amount of discretion.
(no longer that works it now is wham bang £60.00 now 3 points no questions asked. how wrong the system is , even worst you could drive by 3 cameras in a day end up with 9 points. lets face reality if you was pulled over the first time you would have know to slow down the system is nor fair

[Kremmen]

Parking attendants as I understand are on a sort of commission or have targets to meet = no discretion.

Jim over on the Hillingdon forum gets tickets in Hayes, near the post office, in the disabled bays, even when he has his disabled badge clearly displayed on his dashboard.

He has taken to photographing the badge on the dash before leaving the car with time and date and when he gets a ticket, photo again, time & date.

Unfortunately in a lot of cases the wardens are in the job because their is no other job they are qualified for - if you get my drift.

[LNT]

Originally Posted by Kremmen

Parking attendants as I understand are on a sort of commission or have targets to meet = no discretion.

Jim over on the Hillingdon forum gets tickets in Hayes, near the post office, in the disabled bays, even when he has his disabled badge clearly displayed on his dashboard.

He has taken to photographing the badge on the dash before leaving the car with time and date and when he gets a ticket, photo again, time & date.

Unfortunately in a lot of cases the wardens are in the job because their is no other job they are qualified for - if you get my drift.

I think that's a bit harsh. For starters, to write that with glaring grammatical errors is a bit of a paradox and the post therefore loses a bit of credibility. That said, It IS true to say that in my experience, parking wardens are not the highest calibre of person, and they perhaps don't always have the man management skills to offer constructive opinions and can therefore only fall back on a "rules is rules" type of argument. This being the case, you can hardly blame them if you haven't actually followed the rules. Some rules are stupid, but if you don't follow them, you're stuffed. Also, at least they're doing the job and facing the daily hassle they get and not sat on their backsides picking up benefits like they possibly could do. I don't think it's the best paid job in the world, and you know what they say: You pay peanuts, you get monkeys.

[Kremmen]

Not in my area it isn't - the parking warden's/attendants are reknown for their aggressive inhuman style.

Fairly recently they were photographed and reported in the local paper as they were ticketed cars in the early hours (3am) targeting vehicles parked with 2 wheels on the kerb.

They had arrived en-mass by people carrier at that unsocial hour and ticketed the area.

Any other time and the cars would not have been there or the owners would have quickly moved them.

ps: I haven't run this through Word's grammatical checker as I didn't deem it necessary to get the point across!

[CivPilot]

Parking wardens do not get "commission" for the number of tickets they issue. They are not on a "Bonus" scheme. But they do have to operate under a "no discretion" rule. It is not thier choice, they are basically doing a job that nobody else wants and even if they are just walking down the street they are looked at like some sort of evil child killer by some people.

The rules they enforce are as basic as they come yet still they have a job.... that says more about the people keeping them employed than the wardens themselves.
If the sign says "no stopping/parking at any time" or "All cars must display a ticket"... well, that's what it means. not really much room for enterpretation really. They can't really use discretion when the signs (usually) say "AT ANY TIME". Thats pretty hard and fast and if they use discretion there they actually get into trouble.

As for them being not the "highest calibre" in the brain department, well thats just a little bit incorrect and slighty deregatory. It's not them who parked the car illegally. They are just the ones who quite often have to stand there on the receiving end of a torrent of abuse from someone who is 99% of the time in the wrong and in breach of a recognised parking restriction but refuses to rant at the person really to blame (themselves). Yes their are those wardens who maybe enjoy their job more than others, but hey, they are just doing the job in front of them. And as said, at least they are not claiming benefits (I think its a reasonably paid job too).

My ex works in a little toy shop in a town near me and the layby outside the stores is allocated as "no stopping. deliveries only". Yet still people park there (right next to the sign) and "just nip into the shops quickly". The torrents of abuse I have seen wardens receive is quite frankly obcene and in several cases has needed police involvement. Yet in every single case the person has parked illegally and the warden is just doing his/her job. So if they seem to be "not of the highest calibre" it probably because they have already heard it already that day and quite frankly are not interested in going through the very basic rules again. All the wardens near the toy shop mentioned are perfectly nice people (A couple of them will even quite happily stop to help direct a disabled person park in the disabled bays) if your not one of the offenders, however if they are giving a ticket they just get their heads down, do the job and try to ignore the abuse that invariably follows.

No disrespect to the OP as it is often good to have a rant after the fact.

[Topcat]

This story shows you exactly what traffic wardens a like in London

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/a...ing/article.do

[CivPilot]

Originally Posted by Topcat

This story shows you exactly what traffic wardens a like in London

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/a...ing/article.do

So is every single traffic warden in London exactly like that then as you clearly state? Really? Every single one? wow, surprised their arn't more pedestrian hit and run related deaths in the capital.....

Or is that an idiot who just happens to be a traffic warden and made a glaring mistake? (that the article clearly states that said mistake has been corrected by the body employing sdaid warden). Doesnt make the mistake or the warden who made it right. Lets get things into perspective, There are thousands of parking tickets issued per day in the UK... yet only a handfull of these type of stories a month.
the simple fact of the matter is you get idiots in every single job, no matter what you do. Thing that gets my goat is that wardens have long been the target for the tar brush as any ticket always automatically seems to be the wardens fault and not the person who parked the car, or the poeple who impossed the restrictions. Why is this? Pride? Embarissment?

Guess the Human beings I have encountered are a real exception then

Like I said originally, I dont have a problem with you ranting after the fact of getting a ticket (always feels good to have a rant, as you are well aware no doubt) but anyone who gets caught and implys that the wardens are at fault***........ no. They are just trying to do a thankless job enforcing rules they didnt write and spend their days always seeming to be tarred with the same "mini hitler" brush by those who break said rules and get caught.


***I know you didnt do this

[Topcat]

Originally Posted by CivPilot

So is every single traffic warden in London exactly like that then as you clearly state?

Yes every single one they are programmed to be as annoying as possible and are not flexible in anyway, they can use their discretion and don't, I have yet to hear of a helpful traffic warden!!

As you say I hold my hands up I didn't pay for a ticket which is why I didn't argue with the traffic warden, I was gutted as it would have cost me 20pence to park

He was parked in a pay and display bay without a ticket waiting for people to make a mistake, he must have jumped straight out of his car as soon as I went to her door as I was gone minutes, it just winds me up as one day last year my Uncle was in hospital (and has since passed away) he took a turn for the worse and she couldn't get out because some idiot had blocked her in again, I went and picked her up but it wasted valuable time. She is the first house next to the parking bays, people park across her drive so they don't have to pay to park yet the Council wont do anything about it.

I live very near to Kremmen and a couple of years ago our estate was invaded at 7am one Sunday by a van load of traffic wardens putting tickets on people parked across driveways outside their own home - it is a joke.

[Charles_Harding]

Originally Posted by LNT

I think that's a bit harsh. For starters, to write that with glaring grammatical errors is a bit of a paradox and the post therefore loses a bit of credibility.

Who made you grammar monitor!

Kremmen was using a well tried system called communication.

It works!

"I'll always remember the first time I had sex. I've kept the receipt!"

Charles H.

[Topcat]

Charles Harding - you are from SE London (in case you didn't know)

So you gonna come along to the Saturday meet ???

[peter newton]

i am so lucky we dont have this issue in our area

[czechplastik]

With mention to the posted link above with the warden issuing a ticket in somewhat dubious cirumstances, ultimately he was correct to issue the ticket. Every ticket can be appealed and of course there are circumstances when breaches in traffic signage are warranted, this coming from someone with experience of issuing tickets. I do not have a quota, or get commission or have targets to meet, Traffic wardens are quite correct to issue tickets when they do, as stated above, 99.9% of the time the vehicle owner/driver IS in the WRONG. Common sense and a little less laziness would prevent such things. But in the instances when it cannot be avoided, the ticket can be appealed in a magistrates court, who do have discrection and can rescind tickets in exceptional circumstances.Don't give wardens hassle for your own stupidity or laziness. The signs are perfectly clear and well positioned and there are sufficient car parks in major towns.

[Charles_Harding]

Originally Posted by Topcat

Charles Harding - you are from SE London (in case you didn't know)

So you gonna come along to the Saturday meet ???

Love the idea of the meet, but with so many holidays, so many grandchildren, so many pubs and all that wine me and Lady H. brought back from France I'm rairly sober enough to drive!

Maybe some other time eh?

......and of course - it might rain!!!

"It's ok to laugh in the bedroom as long as you don't point!"

Charles H.

[LNT]

Originally Posted by Charles_Harding

Who made you grammar monitor!

LNT was using a well tried system called communication.

It works!

"I'll always remember the first time I had sex. I've kept the receipt!"

Charles H.

Was that a compliment? In which case, I thank you!

I'm not one for pointing out grammar errors at all usually. No one is perfect, least of all me, I'm a complete ignoramous. It was just that when the post criticises someone for being so poorly qualified that they can only get a job as a parking warden, and in doing show, shows their own lack of ability in the English department, it was a case of "People in glass houses" to coin a phrase. If the poster hadn't used the spell check prior to posting, then they should have as if someone is going to criticise people for being poorly qualified, then they need to be bomb proof in terms of the possibility of people wondering just how qualified that person is to criticise, and in this instance, it appeared not very qualified at all. Let him who is without sin cast the first stone, as another saying goes.

If people are offended by my term "not the highest calibre of person" then I readily apologise, but I did precede that by "In my experience", so wasn't casting aspersions on the entire parking warden community. I, too have met some very nice ones, although, again, in my experience, I have to say that it's blatently obvious that they weren't captains of industry before taking up their parking warden positions. I can only speak as I find.