London Banter - View Single Post - Off Topic

U n d e r a c h i e v e r · December 29th 06, 08:13 AM posted to uk.transport.london

In article ,
(Colin Rosenstiel) wrote:

cix email? wow! is that still going?

In article ,
(U n d e r a c h i e v e r) wrote:

*Subject:* Off Topic - Parking Wardens
*From:* U n d e r a c h i e v e r
*Date:* Thu, 28 Dec 2006 08:26:00 +0000

In article ,
(Colin Rosenstiel) wrote:
No. You stop contrary to parking regulations, you get a ticket.
If you
had a lawful excuse that didn't become apparent in time, the
ticket is
cancelled. Seems fair enough to me.

It's not quiet as simple as that. Police officers, and traffic
wardens employed by the police, had discretion not to issue tickets
under the old, criminal, system. They also had no financial
incentive to issue tickets that they knew someone else would cancel
on appeal. Under the decriminalised system discretion has moved
from the street to the town hall, and it is rarely, if ever,
exercised.

Not at all. Quite a high proportion of Cambridge tickets are cancelled.

Well, I was commenting on London. In London a significant proportion of
tickets are cancelled because they were issued for non-offences (eg
loading/unloading taking place); the proportion cancelled on
discretionary grounds is very, very small. The proportion cancelled on
discretionary grounds in Cambridge might be a lot higher, as, I guess
most of the recipients live in Cambridge and the council might not want
to upset local residents and get a bad press. Westminster, along with
most London boroughs I guess, mainly issue to non-residents and really
don't have the same incentives to be judicious in their application of
the law -- they behave as though they just want the money.

Stopping to help at the scene of an accident isn't a lawful excuse
for parking on a yellow line, by the way, so a good sense of
discretion in these cases is essential. What the parking attendant
should have been doing is helping the injured and/or helping to
keep traffic moving by directing it and/or summoning help on their
police radio, which is what would have happened if they were a
police traffic warden. Instead this jobsworth issues pointless
parking penalties! And it seems fair enough to you?

You misunderstand the new system. When did you last see a traffic warden
under the old system?

I know the new system extremely well. And in many respects a locally run
enforcement operation could be made to be effective and fair: but at the
moment they are run for profit.

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