ILLEGAL PARKING?

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A motorist claims he was sworn at and threatened by a traffic warden after he took a photograph of the council official stopped on double yellow lines. But Derby City Council say the warden was not parked illegally and at the time was checking that a different car was carrying its blue disabled badge.

Waqias Bhatti said he was driving through Normanton when he spotted the council vehicle parked illegally. He took out his mobile phone and snapped the Streetpride van which had the warden sitting inside. Mr Bhatti said the warden leaned out of the window and swore at him before saying, "I can have you done for this."

Mr Bhatti then called the police to the incident, but the warden had driven off by the time they arrived. He has reported the matter to Derby City Council. He said, "Anyone who lives in the area will tell you the parking problems are dreadful, so to see a council official parked so blatantly on double yellow lines is appalling. This is someone in a position of authority whose job it is to help solve the parking problem in the area, not add to it by parking in this way. He thinks he is above the law." Mr Bhatti said the incident happened in Stanton Street.

A spokesman for Derbyshire police said officers had spoken to Mr Bhatti. He said, "We received a call to say that a council vehicle was parked illegally on double yellow lines and the caller said he had taken a photograph of it. He then told officers that the warden had been aggressive towards him and that he felt intimidated." A spokesman for Derby City Council said at the time of the incident the parking supervisor, an experienced member of staff, was not parked illegally. Instead he had stopped for two minutes while he checked, from his vehicle, whether a different vehicle, parked on double yellow lines, was displaying a blue disabled person's badge.

He said, "While the parking supervisor was doing this, another vehicle drove past him and stopped in the middle of the road preventing him from proceeding. The driver of this other vehicle got out of his car and accused the parking supervisor of parking on double yellow lines and insisted that he get out of his vehicle. The parking supervisor did this and at this point the photograph was taken by the other driver. The GPRS records used by the council show that less than two minutes elapsed between the parking supervisor driving into and subsequently leaving Stanton Street, hence as this time includes the time for the incident to occur, it is clear our vehicle was not parked." (Source: Derby Evening Telegraph, Jul/11)

Comment:
So what's the difference between "parking" and "stopping"? You might not have realised that one existed, but it seems it does, at least in the eyes of the city council. The authority concedes that one of its traffic wardens had his vehicle on double yellow lines in Stanton Street, where it was photographed by an angry motorist. The latter finished up calling the police after claiming he was sworn at and threatened by the warden, a version not accepted by the council.

It said that the officer was checking up on whether another vehicle, parked on double yellows, was displaying a disabled person's blue badge. And it maintained that as its record showed that the official was in Stanton Street for less than two minutes, "it is clear our vehicle was not parked". You might want to try that one the next time a warden approaches you with a ticket. "I've only been here for a couple of minutes to pop into a shop, I'm not parking, I've just stopped."

Parking fines of almost £500,000 have been handed out in Derby since the city council took over patrols. Latest figures show that by the end of March, fines worth £466,193 had been paid, equivalent to 15,500 fines and nine times more than police collected. But after staff and operating costs, only £35,239 profit was made. Unlike the police, the council can keep the money it generates from fines, but it also has to pay the employment costs of the parking attendants to patrol the streets.

In 2005-6, when the police were in control of issuing tickets, just 1,750 were dished out for the whole of Derby city and South Derbyshire. This led to an income of £52,500, which was paid to the government. The council said it was looking to recruit more parking attendants. It is hoping to have a total force of around 25 wardens. Maybe the reason for the huge rise in fines has something to do with the fact that the council gets to keep the revenue. (Source: BBC News, Aug/07)

Partem, a company based in Cheltenham, Glos, has developed a system of road sensors which will send a text message to a traffic warden as soon as a car is parked illegally. Current estimates suggest that the sensors could cost around only £30 each. The system, known as Volis, entails placing sensors 5ft apart on a road where parking is subject to control. The sensors would receive a signal from a satellite overhead, either the current GPS system or the planned European equivalent known as Galileo. If a car is parked above the sensor, the signal drops, but does not disappear, and this triggers the sending of a text message telling the warden where the offending car is parked. Parking meters can use the same technology. As soon as the clock has run down, a text is transmitted, the GPS sensor tells the warden where the car is. (Source: Daily Telegraph, May/06)

Local councils are illegally using motorists as a cash cow by flouting government guidelines and turning parking control into a money-making business. While Whitehall insists that local authorities should use their powers only to improve traffic management, increasing numbers of motorists are finding that councils see parking as a multi-million-pound source of revenue. This is despite the efforts of the parking industry to improve its image while satisfying the demands of local authorities that employ them.

An investigation by The Daily Telegraph has uncovered an array of abuses. They include the issuing of thousands of illegal parking tickets, many of which are quashed on appeal. Some contractors have set "benchmarks" for the number of penalty charge notices that each attendant should issue on their shifts. On occasions fines are increased substantially when collection is handed over to debt enforcement agencies that obtain county court judgments against motorists who are unaware that any "hearing" has taken place. (Source: Daily Telegraph, Jan/06)

Steve Conn asked officers how police could get away with parking on double yellow lines in Normanton Road and was allegedly told, "We can do what we like, because we're the law". He first approached a nearby marked police vehicle to ask why the unmarked van was there and claims an officer dismissed him by saying - 'why don't you ask them'. But when he walked up to the van, he said he was met with an aggressive response.

Mr Conn is angry that Derbyshire police are suggesting there is one rule for them regarding illegal parking and another for the rest of the county. The van is part of the ANPR unit and Inspector Louis Martin, who is in charge of the unit, was sympathetic about Mr Conn's complaint, but defended the use of the vans in the fight against crime.

He said, "I strongly suggest that he makes an official complaint to the Chief Constable about the incivility and it will be investigated properly, but these vans are a tool we have to catch criminals. There is a lot of criminal activity like drug dealing on Normanton Road and we cannot allow them to have free range just because there are double yellow lines on the road. Despite complaints, we are going to carry on." In other words, tough!

Motorist Dennis Ashmore spotted a police speed camera van, parked yards from a junction on busy Heanor Road, Codnor, as it was monitoring the speed of vehicles heading into the village. Mr Ashmore said the police speed camera van, which had the slogan "promoting safety" on its side, was obstructing the flow of traffic by parking on a bend.

He said it forced other road users to enter a hatched area on the carriageway. According to rule 109 of the Highway Code, drivers should only enter hatched areas where they can see on-coming traffic and assess it is safe to enter. But Mr Harrison said the position of the police van would have prevented motorists from seeing on-coming traffic.

The Highway Code also states that cars should not be parked within 32ft (10m) of a junction, or on a bend in the interest of safety (rule 217). The previous week Mr Ashmore said he spotted the van parked on the other side of the road, checking the speed of vehicles driving away from Codnor.

Police spokeswoman Jill Walden denied the police were guilty of doing anything wrong saying, "There was nothing wrong with the way these police vehicles were parked. If they were normal road users you would just go around them. It is not illegal to enter a hatched area without a solid outline. The police would not ask motorists to move on if they were parked in a similar position." Something for all motorists to remember.

For the past 50 years, residents living in Radbourne Lane, Mackworth, have parked their cars on a grass verge which runs between their homes and the road. During this time, pathways from the verge, through a hedge and down a steep slope to the houses have been made by residents walking to and from their cars. According to householders, these pathways, which are not legally public rights of way, are also used every day by service people, delivery drivers and dustmen as a direct route to some 20 homes. Recently residents living on Radbourne Lane were sent a letter informing them of proposed footway resurfacing works due to take place. As the work started, many residents inquired further about the work.

To their disgust they discovered that, while the work was going on, Derby City Council was also to consider placing wooden bollards along the verge to prevent vehicles parking. A spokeswoman for the council said, "We're not putting in bollards along the verge at the moment, however we may have to. The reason for this is that it has become an issue after an insurance claim was made against us. People have been parking illegally along the verge and over the years they have made an access route through the hedge from the verge to the houses. But it's not a public right of way. We have had an incident where somebody has slipped and then claimed against us."

She added, "We're talking to residents as we understand not all of them have drives to park on and, with it being a 40mph road, they can't park on the road. As a local authority we don't have to provide parking spaces but we do have sympathy with them and we do want to sort out a solution which will prevent people parking on the verge." But residents are outraged by these plans and have said they will fight them all the way. One said, "People have always parked on this grass verge but if we park on the road it will make it even more dangerous. It's a fast road and a bus route and cars parked will just make it worse." (Source: Derby Evening Telegraph)