I watched this last night with great interest. In Leamington the parking system has changed a great deal these past 7/8 years.
It used to be like this - Car parking free in car parks on a sunday, paid during the week 8am-8pm. On street car parking was always free.
Then they changed it to be £1 for car parks on a sunday, normal rates 8am-8pm for the rest of the week.
They then introduced a charge on the street parking but also limited it to 2 hour stay. It did start off as a bit of a farce because charges were 8am-8pm same as car parks but local businesses argued that they wee losing evening trade due to people not coming into town until after 8pm. This was then changed to 8am-6pm but some streets down by the cinema were 8am-10pm. Roughly at the same time car parking fees also changed and now it cost the same to park 8am-8pm all week.
The above was in place up until recently when they now charge a fee in car parks for people parking 8pm-8am! its only 50p BUT its the principle, why charge to park during off peak hours? mind boggles.
I really do think Leamington has lost out a great deal due to its parking measures, I do think its good to introduce street parking charges because before the roads were packed with people parking up for the day and going to work, it was hard to just nip into the bank or whatever so it has made that easier, however the consistency over metered and non metered areas is terrible. I know there has to be a line somewhere but one street might be metered then the next one around the corner isn't. I work near town, about 5 minutes walk but we have private car parking, now our road isn't metered so we do get a lot of people park down here let the road next to it is metered and is empty. Its got to the point where roads near town not metered are packed full so they have in a way just moved the problem onto another road. Car parking charges, its a difficult one because we are one of the most expensive around and I do think that in order to compete with other shopping towns we do need to offer cheap parking to get the business in, I don't think the council think like that though.
Anyway back to the show.....
It was interesting and mildly amusing to see the parking and peoples reaction to it. I do think that those who park in a bus lane or on dangerous double yellows even for a few minutes take the risk and if the risk doesn't pay off then don't complain about getting a ticket. People who do park like this very rarely only do it once, I would assume those who do it tend to be those doing it for years yet for whatever reason not caught, or maybe have but carried on. The lady fighting her fine did make me laugh, she lived on a ticketed road so she knew what would happen yet still parked illegally!? I liked her reason "loading fish and chips"!
All they talk about enforcement 'not being about the fines' and 'mission to educate motorists', listen to the glee in all the enforcement employee's voices.
Excitedly "Hes getting a ticket!", digustedly "Motorists", "its just my job". They're about as impartial as the Liverpool kop.
All they talk about enforcement 'not being about the fines' and 'mission to educate motorists', listen to the glee in all the enforcement employee's voices.
Excitedly "Hes getting a ticket!", digustedly "Motorists", "its just my job". They're about as impartial as the Liverpool kop.
I noticed that too. Their arrogance was unbelievable.
All they talk about enforcement 'not being about the fines' and 'mission to educate motorists', listen to the glee in all the enforcement employee's voices.
Excitedly "Hes getting a ticket!", digustedly "Motorists", "its just my job". They're about as impartial as the Liverpool kop.
I'm not sure. If you're talking about that man administering the tickets while monitoring the cctv screens, then it looked like he was isolating some pretty blatant and outrageous infringements. No room for mitigation there.
If you mean the more senior gentlemen who looked like he was in charge of that control centre, then again, the parking violations were pretty dangerous and obstructive.
Even the woman with the van who was reduced to tears, I would say was questionable. Maybe she was genuinely caught out by the sudden and unpublicised changes to parking restrictions but even so, it looked like the road had always been fairly clearly regulated.
That old lady - Pat- was very sweet but definitely trying it on and deserved a ticket, if it wasn't just staged for the TV programme. (You never know).
The woman who had the van should of seen the blatantly obvious yellow kerb markings and single yellow line, so she should of looked for the sign in the first place.
It would be nice to see councils sending an explanation leaflet with the relevant highway code law/rule (in simple form) as a bit of education. Shaming people into something they should know and a fine would probably take the edge off the fine/money demand.
The woman who had the van should of seen the blatantly obvious yellow kerb markings and single yellow line, so she should of looked for the sign in the first place.
Well I didn't like to say too much for fear of sounding like a parking warden, but that's exactly what I was getting at Doctor.
I thought that old woman going on about loading fish and chips was just ridiculous. She clearly got caught out through her own fault and was just trying to make a joke of it for the cameras.
There's a 20 minute loading bay on a yellow line outside some shops in a road near me. Rarely do I see the cars parked there loading or unloading. On the occaisions I do go there to purchase/collect heavy items I can never ever park nearby. People think 'loading' means stopping to park for short periods.
This show made my blood boil.
I had a business in my town and the parking was a massive issue. It cost £1.10 per hour so people wanted to dash back to there cars so they didn't get a ticket meaning they couldn't have meals or stay very long.
I was also given a ticket my one warden but told by another that I could park there as I was loading. Do they make te rules up as they go along
Comments
It used to be like this - Car parking free in car parks on a sunday, paid during the week 8am-8pm. On street car parking was always free.
Then they changed it to be £1 for car parks on a sunday, normal rates 8am-8pm for the rest of the week.
They then introduced a charge on the street parking but also limited it to 2 hour stay. It did start off as a bit of a farce because charges were 8am-8pm same as car parks but local businesses argued that they wee losing evening trade due to people not coming into town until after 8pm. This was then changed to 8am-6pm but some streets down by the cinema were 8am-10pm. Roughly at the same time car parking fees also changed and now it cost the same to park 8am-8pm all week.
The above was in place up until recently when they now charge a fee in car parks for people parking 8pm-8am! its only 50p BUT its the principle, why charge to park during off peak hours? mind boggles.
I really do think Leamington has lost out a great deal due to its parking measures, I do think its good to introduce street parking charges because before the roads were packed with people parking up for the day and going to work, it was hard to just nip into the bank or whatever so it has made that easier, however the consistency over metered and non metered areas is terrible. I know there has to be a line somewhere but one street might be metered then the next one around the corner isn't. I work near town, about 5 minutes walk but we have private car parking, now our road isn't metered so we do get a lot of people park down here let the road next to it is metered and is empty. Its got to the point where roads near town not metered are packed full so they have in a way just moved the problem onto another road. Car parking charges, its a difficult one because we are one of the most expensive around and I do think that in order to compete with other shopping towns we do need to offer cheap parking to get the business in, I don't think the council think like that though.
Anyway back to the show.....
It was interesting and mildly amusing to see the parking and peoples reaction to it. I do think that those who park in a bus lane or on dangerous double yellows even for a few minutes take the risk and if the risk doesn't pay off then don't complain about getting a ticket. People who do park like this very rarely only do it once, I would assume those who do it tend to be those doing it for years yet for whatever reason not caught, or maybe have but carried on. The lady fighting her fine did make me laugh, she lived on a ticketed road so she knew what would happen yet still parked illegally!? I liked her reason "loading fish and chips"!
Excitedly "Hes getting a ticket!", digustedly "Motorists", "its just my job". They're about as impartial as the Liverpool kop.
I noticed that too. Their arrogance was unbelievable.
I'm not sure. If you're talking about that man administering the tickets while monitoring the cctv screens, then it looked like he was isolating some pretty blatant and outrageous infringements. No room for mitigation there.
If you mean the more senior gentlemen who looked like he was in charge of that control centre, then again, the parking violations were pretty dangerous and obstructive.
Even the woman with the van who was reduced to tears, I would say was questionable. Maybe she was genuinely caught out by the sudden and unpublicised changes to parking restrictions but even so, it looked like the road had always been fairly clearly regulated.
That old lady - Pat- was very sweet but definitely trying it on and deserved a ticket, if it wasn't just staged for the TV programme. (You never know).
It would be nice to see councils sending an explanation leaflet with the relevant highway code law/rule (in simple form) as a bit of education. Shaming people into something they should know and a fine would probably take the edge off the fine/money demand.
Well I didn't like to say too much for fear of sounding like a parking warden, but that's exactly what I was getting at Doctor.
I thought that old woman going on about loading fish and chips was just ridiculous. She clearly got caught out through her own fault and was just trying to make a joke of it for the cameras.
There's a 20 minute loading bay on a yellow line outside some shops in a road near me. Rarely do I see the cars parked there loading or unloading. On the occaisions I do go there to purchase/collect heavy items I can never ever park nearby. People think 'loading' means stopping to park for short periods.
I had a business in my town and the parking was a massive issue. It cost £1.10 per hour so people wanted to dash back to there cars so they didn't get a ticket meaning they couldn't have meals or stay very long.
I was also given a ticket my one warden but told by another that I could park there as I was loading. Do they make te rules up as they go along
I thought she was going into the song for a certain popular shaveing device:D