ILLEGAL PARKING?

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Vernon Street has a mix of free and pay and display bays. While people have to pay to park in 22 of the 40 spaces on the side of the street closest to the city centre, those who leave their cars in the other 18 bays, or the 51 on the other side of the road, do not. People have been seen parking in the free bays and then walking across the road to pay up when they have no need to. Resident Nigel Aspdin believes the city council should put up signs or use road markings to identify the pay and display bays to avoid any confusion.

The parking arrangements on the street have been in place since 2001. The unusual arrangement arose because plans to turn the whole street into a pay and display area were opposed by local businesses. Instead, the council created extra spaces by making right-angled bays on the side of the road furthest from the city centre instead of the standard parallel bays that had been in place. By doing this, it was able to add extra pay and display bays without reducing the number of free parking spaces that were already in place.

The council's head of traffic, David Gartside, said, "We've been in lengthy discussions with Mr Aspdin over this and found that there was no significant problem. The bays do look the same, but those that are pay and display are identified by signs at either end of that stretch of the road. The difficulty is that, by adding further signage or changing the road markings, we could make it more confusing." Yes, and lose the city council a nice little earner. (Source: Derby Evening Telegraph, Feb/07)

A parking scheme was introduced in parts of Derby early in 2002 in which residents were given free permits, preventing shoppers from clogging the streets during week days. Since July 2003 however, residents have had to pay £25 for a permit for one car and a further £50 for a second car. Deputy Council Leader Philip Hickson, had promised to promised to investigate the possibility of waiving the charge, but so far nothing has been done.

In 2003 Councillor Hickson said, "Residents should not be expected to pay for the privilege of parking in their street. This is something that we will be looking into and we will be re-examining it in consultation with the residents." One resident, Steve Toone, has accused Mr Hickson of doing a U-turn on the issue. He said, "I thought Mr Hickson was sincere and I was trusting him to drive it through, but this hasn't been done and he's now trying to justify the cost."

Mr Hickson replied, "Our position is that we would have liked to have scrapped the charge but we can't do everything at once. The budget priorities were such that we weren't able to do it. It's still our long-term aim to do it, but it's not at the top of the list. We have looked at it but it could not be accommodated in this year's budget process. We were looking to drive down the council tax and the budget was very tight. We're keeping it under review and we will have a look at it in the next budget."

Kirklees Council has cost the tax payer almost £6,000, after relentlessly pursuing a man who had failed to pay for a 10 pence parking space. Nick Newby had not spotted pay and display signs as he parked in a car park in Mirfield, West Yorks. When he returned to his car he had a parking ticket for £25. Despite a letter to the council, in which he showed photographs of a 14ft high sign advertising the car park for use by shoppers to the Co-op, they refused to accept his excuse and demanded he pay up.

With a defiant Newby refusing to pay the fine and a determined council pursuing at all costs, the case finally finished after an incredible 20 months, several court appearances, and costs reaching £5,700. Newby is now celebrating a 'moral victory' as a judge decided that, in law, Nick Newby had lost his case, but because of the council's flaws in showing clear signs, the proper penalty was one of 'absolute discharge' and that he should not pay any costs.

Newby had originally been convicted of non-payment of the fine at Dewsbury magistrates court. He was originally fined £50 and ordered to pay £250 towards costs incurred by Kirklees Council in bringing the case. But he refused to back down and appeared at Leeds Crown Court to appeal against his conviction. He maintained that there was no way he would have been able to see any signs showing he should have had to pay to park, in a car park which is now, amazingly, free of charge. (Source: This is London, Oct/06)

A retired police sergeant is taking legal action to stop the flouting of parking regulations by his former police force. Ernie Gash, a self-styled motorists’ champion, is mounting a private prosecution of Humberside Police for allowing its vehicles to be parked on double yellow lines outside his local police station. Mr Gash turned private detective to build a dossier of photographic evidence that contains 14 alleged instances of illegal parking by marked police cars and vans in Scunthorpe. He argues that officers who park on double yellow lines outside the police station should receive fixed penalty tickets as would any other motorist who breaches parking regulations.

Mr Gash, a former Police Federation representative, turned to the courts after his complaints to the town’s senior police officer, Chief Superintendent Graham Di Duca, allegedly met with no response. He went to his local library, read a number of legal texts, decided that the police had a case to answer and served 14 summonses on Mr Di Duca, each alleging that he had “aided and abetted” his officers’ illegal parking. Mr Gash says that Scunthorpe Police Station has 46 legitimate parking spaces for its fleet of about 50 vehicles, some of which are, at any given time, out on patrol.

When the case came before Scunthorpe magistrates, lawyers for Humberside Police indicated that Mr Di Duca intended to plead not guilty to all the charges brought by Mr Gash. The force has reserved the right to engage a barrister for any future trial, which would leave the retired officer facing a legal bill of up to £7,000 if he loses the case and is forced to pay defence costs. A spokeswoman for the force said, “Humberside Police can confirm that a private summons has been issued against the district commander in relation to the parking of police vehicles at Scunthorpe Police Station. The charges will be vigorously defended.” (Source: Times Online)

I consider myself to be a reasonably educated person and law-abiding citizen, so why have Derby City Council Parking Services made me question both of these? Recently my daughter and I went into Derby to do some shopping and parked in the Liversage Street car park where we duly paid £2.40 for two-three hours' parking at 3.20pm.

On our return to the car at 6.20pm (exactly three hours later) we found one traffic warden taking a photograph of my number plate and the other one sticking a penalty notice on my windscreen. The penalty notice was issued at 6.18pm and when we argued the fact that we had actually paid for three hours, and had returned within that three hours, the traffic wardens agreed with us but they could not cancel the penalty and we had to go to the office on Friary Street to appeal.

My daughter went to Friary Street the next day armed with the evidence of what we had paid and the penalty notice which was issued. She was told to put it all in writing and take photocopies of the evidence, which she duly did. We heard nothing until last week when we received a letter saying that because we were parked in the car park after 6pm I should have paid the flat rate evening charge of 80p on top of what I had already paid and that I had to pay the penalty of £30.00.

They took over three months to get back to me, but I have to pay this fine within 14 days or it doubles to £60.00. I am very angry about having to pay this fine, as it was not made clear that the amount I had already paid did not cover me after 6pm. I would be very interested to hear if other motorists have been caught like this as the traffic wardens seemed to be putting penalty notices on quite a few cars that night! Jane O'Neill

Millions of motorists are likely to incur parking fines without realising it after being caught on CCTV. Local councils are to have the power to use remote cameras to enforce parking laws, then send tickets by post. The move comes alongside other changes that will allow parking attendants to issue tickets as soon as they say they have seen a car illegally parked, without having to put them on the motorist's windscreen.

Under the new plans, town hall staff in control rooms will monitor CCTV cameras trained on high streets to issue tickets the second a car parks on a yellow line or overstays at a parking meter. Under some circumstances, motorists can wait on single yellow lines to let passengers out or unload goods but this has not stopped CCTV operators in London, where councils have been allowed to use cameras for some time, issuing tickets anyway.

Caroline Sheppard, the chief adjudicator or the National Parking Adjudication Service, said drivers should be allowed a few minutes grace to find change for a parking meter. There will be no obligation on anyone issuing a ticket remotely to follow this guidance, however. Paul Watters, the AA's head of Roads and Transport Policy, said, "CCTV cameras can be used to enforce parking restrictions which will make it appear easy to enforce parking bans and dole out tickets but a CCTV camera cannot spot a blue badge, note down a tax disc number or always spot loading or unloading." (Source: Daily Telegraph, Feb/08)

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