Free parking. Not usually free.
October 17, 2009 at 9:10 am | In in the news | 2 CommentsThe BBC reports on problems caused by introducing free parking at hospitals in Scotland.
Since charges were abolished at the hospital, the car park has been constantly full and staff have resorted to parking in nearby residential streets.
It’s not clear what’s happening here exactly: are more people visiting? Are people staying for longer when they visit? Are people driving who didn’t when they had to pay for parking? Or are people parking there when they aren’t going to the hospital? I suspect that it’s all of the above, in varying degrees. The BBC also report that:
[Lothian Health Board is] spending £60,000 a month managing car parking across all its sites – money which used to be raised through charges but which now has to come from the budget for patient care.
I have sympathy for people who need to visit the hospital, and don’t see why they need to pay, but there do need to be some restrictions in place. I don’t know exactly what the best solution is, but perhaps a way of providing free parking for patients, permits that are paid for (but relatively cheap) for staff, and a choice of pay for or free parking for visitors – free parking could be time-limited, but with tickets for an all-day visit available, perhaps.
Want to stay all day?
October 7, 2009 at 7:30 pm | In Dealing with MoPs, Limited Waiting, come-backs | Leave a CommentThen don’t use one of these bays:
We do know if you overstay. And we can tell whether or not you’ve moved your vehicle. I recently encountered a customer who claimed to have arrived “two minutes ago” (the only time any-one has ever arrived). We had recorded the vehicle’s presence over 200 minutes ago, and it had not moved.
Another limited waiting bay, in a different town, is used for all-day parking by staff at a nearby business. They come and turn the cars around at every break time, so we don’t always catch them (the contravention of “returning” is rather more difficult to prove, especially if the “no return within” is shorter than the maximum stay), but we get a few each week. It’s rather surprising that they haven’t learnt yet.
I got a parking ticket! Quick, call the Police!
February 7, 2009 at 9:07 pm | In Dealing with MoPs, PCNs, Pay and Display, come-backs, radio controlled | 2 CommentsMy colleague (I’ll call him Tim) and I have between us just finished checking the largest car park in the borough, working one each side, from the front to the back. We’re walking together back up to the front of the car park, and we walk past a 4×4 that Tim had issued a PCN to just as the driver returns. The PCN is for being beyond the bay markings, and this 4×4, despite fitting in one bay, has been parked across four. The driver asks what the PCN was issued for, saying “but I’ve got a ticket”, and Tim explains.
The driver tells us he’ll call the police, tells us to wait there until they arrive, and threans us against walking away. Whilst he’s doing this, I contact control by radio, and they repeat their standard advice of “Walk away from the area”. The driver calls the Police, and whislt doing so his passenger tries to convince me that the only thing we can issue a PCN for is not buying a ticket. I point out the board by the nearby pay machine, which lists all the contraventions for which PCNs can be issued – there’s about 15 – but she resolutely refuses to look, and turns her head to face directly away from it, saying “No”. Meanwhile, the operator the driver has spoken to has managed to convince him that the Police will not turn up and arrest us for issuing a PCN to a car parked out of bay.
“F*** off, then” the driver snarls at us, as he gets in and drives away. We turn and walk away, amazed that the customer was stupid enough to try calling the Police because he got a PCN.
999 Operator 1 : Stupid Driver nil
Fire!
January 16, 2009 at 1:46 am | In in the news | Leave a CommentScarbourgh Evening News reports on an example of one of the many reasons my job is necessary:
RESIDENTS have urged council bosses to improve parking after a fire engine became stuck between parked cars.
Scarborough Council is proposing to ban cars from parking on parts of St John’s Avenue and St John’s Road following complaints.
The fire may have caused more damage than it otherwise would have done, but fortunately no-one was hurt – this time.
Laws that don’t exist
January 14, 2009 at 5:07 pm | In Dealing with MoPs, Pay and Display | Leave a CommentI’m walking down a street with a busy on-street Pay-and-Display bay when I come to a car not displaying a ticket. I make a note of the registration in my HHT, and a woman get out of the passenger side and starts ranting at me.
“You can’t do that, it’s against the law!” She shouts, just as I’m finishing entering the details.
“What’s against the law? The vehicle is in a pay and display bay, and there’s no ticket on display.”
“He’s just gone to get cash” She replies, pointing towards a man using a nearby cash point.
I forget the exact details of the rest of the conversation, but in the next three minutes, she tells me that:
- She is a “qualified student”, which apparently me she knows what she’s talking about;
- I didn’t pass my training to do this job;
- I am legally obliged to believe anything a member of the public tells me;
- I have broken the law – and when I asked what law, I discover that it’s “not obeying the public”; and
- “he” has gone to get cash so that he can get change to buy a ticket.
During this time, the person using the cash point returns, joins in and threatens to call the police, but doesn’t actually follow through. Eventually, I manage to get through to them that I haven’t issued a penalty, and all they need to do is purchase a ticket and I’ll go away. The driver goes and purchases a ticket, but with change provided by his argumentative female passenger. He returns to the car, and drives off, which he could have done in the first place if he hadn’t stopped to argue with me.
York pensioner fined for using dead wife’s disabled parking badge
January 13, 2009 at 11:11 am | In Blue Badges, in the news | 2 CommentsThe Press reports on a widower in York who has been caught caught and fined for using his dead wife’s blue badge, and changing the expiry date on it.
This kind of crime is difficult to catch, despite probably being quite common , so well done to the City of York Council CEO who reported it, and to the Council’s Fraud and Investigations Team.
What’s the difference?
January 8, 2009 at 9:12 pm | In Dealing with MoPs, Pay and Display, come-backs | Leave a CommentThe local authority I work for issues permits for its pay and display car parks, which specify which car park(s) they are valid on. As I’m on a car park this afternoon – we’ll call it “Road A Car Park” – somebody walks up to me waving a penalty and shouting.
This person has received a penalty (issued by some-one else, earlier in the day), for being in the pay and display bay on Road A, without a ticket. On the street itself, the other side of the road to the really big and obvious car park. “I’ve got a permit, so why did I get this ticket?” he asks.
“Well, the penalty’s not from from me, but the permit is for the car park, not the on-street pay and display bay” I explain.
“I don’t know the difference between an on-street bay and a car park, ” the customer responds, “how am I meant to know it’s only valid on the car park?”
Aside from the fact that everybody else with a permit managed to figure it out, that the difference between a road and a car park is something every driver should be able to recognise, and that the permits come with maps showing where they can be used, I point out that it does say (very clearly) “car park” on the permit.
He said he hoped I was proud of the job I did, and I told him I was. He didn’t say what he did, but I hope it’s not something that requires reading comprehension.
Going to get change?
January 1, 2009 at 10:11 am | In PCNs, Pay and Display, come-backs | Leave a CommentA common excuse for some-one not having a ticket in a pay and display bay or car park is “I’d just gone to get change”. The Traffic Penalty Tribunal has said that going to get change is “not generally a defence”, and Patrol-UK.info, which gives advice on PCNs and represents the councils who run decriminalised parking schemes advises motorists to carry enough enough small change for parking.
Despite this, we do allow some time for people to go and get change. We observe a vehicle in a Pay and Display bay or car park for five minutes before issuing a PCN, but there are times when it seems this is not enough for motorists.
One recent PCN I issued was to a car displaying a 15 minute ticket, which had expired 10 minutes ago. I issue the PCN, and take photographs – this takes two or three minutes. Just as I finish, the driver comes out of a nearby shop, runs up to me, and explains “I’d just gone to get change”. On a street with several relatively quiet shops, close to the town centre, it does not take 27 minutes to fetch more change.
Later the same day, I’m on a car park nearby. One of the last cars I come to is expensive and no more than a year old, but there’s no ticket on it. I observe for five minutes, and no-one returns to put a ticket on it. I prepare the PCN on my HHT, and a woman carrying shopping bags walks onto the car park as I press print. She tells me she had just gone to fetch change. I don’t believe her, but advise her as if I do:
“If you purchase a ticket now, I’ll put in my notes that you had just gone to get change, and that you returned and purchased a ticket, you can appeal and use the ticket as evidence.”
She walks off in the direction of the ticket machine, but walks past the ticket machine and starts talking to a couple who have just walked onto the car park. She disappears behind a row of cars, come back and says “it fell on the floor”, gets in and drives straight off.
What I’m guessing she’s done is tell that couple some sob story, got their ticket off them, and will now appeal, pretending that it is the ticket she had all along. Every one else on that car park had paid, and she was too tight even to buy a short ticket (the tariff starts at less than a pound).
EDIT: I have since discovered that the second driver did indeed appeal, claiming that the ticket had fallen off
No, it’s not Christmas yet.
December 23, 2008 at 11:10 pm | In Dealing with MoPs, PCNs, moved on | Leave a CommentThe last few days before Christmas really seem to bring out the desperate in people. The last few days I’ve issued far more PCNs than normal (two to three times as many as I’d usually get on an area in some cases). One of my PCNs today was to a car that been “parked beyond expiry of paid time” (i.e. the ticket had run out) by an hour and a half. I’ve had some-one tell me they heard it was going to be free this week. Some-one else told me the council is “tight” for not making parking free for Christmas (this council used to reduce charges for December, but last year they didn’t put them back up again afterwards).
I’ve also heard “Let him off, it’s Christmas!” far to many times. ”Not ’till Thursday!” I reply, each time. The amount of traffic in the town centres means that actually, this time of year is when doing my job is most important. I’ve seen several roads grind to a standstill, and plenty more that would have done, if I wasn’t there. Let me impress you with my Paint skills again:
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- The bus stop takes up half the road
When there’s a bus stopped in the bus stop (and it’s a busy bus stop), there’s only just enough space for a car to pass. Unless, of course, there’s a car waiting on the double yellow lines. Every time I walk along this street, there is at least one car there, but usually its three or five. Most of the time, the driver will be sat in the car, but won’t move until I start putting details in my HHT – even after I’ve warned them, and there’s obviously a queue of traffic stuck behind them.
No, your VRM doesn’t give me your bank details
December 17, 2008 at 8:43 pm | In Blue Badges, Dealing with MoPs | Leave a CommentI’m walking up a street with double yellow lines on both sides. The street has quite a few shops on it, so we get a lot of disabled badge holders parking on the side of the road, on the double yellow lines. We also get a few people without disabled badges, just hoping to get away with it or waiting in the vehicle to drive off if we turn up.
We cannot issue a PCN immediately on double yellow lines: we have to allow a couple of minutes for loading. We put the vehicle’s VRM (Vehicle Registration Mark) into our HHT, and if it’s still there when the time is up, put it in again, and issue the PCN then.
As I walk down the street, I’m entering the VRMs of all the cars. It’s worth doing with the ones displaying blue badges, because they are subject to a three hour time limit, but I’m primarily expecting to find vehicles without blue badges, and either move them or issue a penalty. When I get to the top, I’ll walk back and start again, issuing a PCN to any vehicle still there that shouldn’t be.
I glance at the dashboard of a car, and see no blue badge, so I put the VRM in my HHT – I will check more carefully before issuing the PCN, if it’s still there – and walk on. I’m entering the details of the next vehicle when I hear some-one shouting behind me. The driver of the car I’ve just noted the VRM of is shouting at me, and is clearly angry. I’ve not yet issued a PCN, or asked her to move – I hadn’t actually seen her.
“What gives you the right,” she thunders, “to note down my details in your little computer thing?”
“It’s my job,” I explain, “I have to note down the vehicle’s details to enforce the parking restrictions here. “
“But I’m parked legally!” She responds, pointing towards the dashboard of her car, where a blue badge is clearly displayed in a position it hadn’t been when I took the details.
“You have no right to take down the details of my car when I’m parked legally, just because you’re in a uniform.”
The customer spends five minutes ranting at me, trying to convince me to delete her VRM from my HHT (which I can’t do), that our office staff will spend half an hour getting all kinds of information about her from it being in the system (they won’t, and probably can’t) including her bank details (they definitely can’t), that I’ll be asking for an identity card next (actually, I should have asked to see the other side of the badge, and check it was hers, but I didn’t), and that this country is a dictatorship (it isn’t). She wanted to take my number, so that she could complain me having written down her VRM in my HHT, despite me explaining why I have to (and that although she is parked legally, is still subject to rectrictions), and complained that laws always used to go through parliament but don’t now (they still do, including the one which created my job).
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