TRAFFIC WARDENS

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Parking bosses are to be banned from setting targets on the number of tickets their wardens issue to motorists each year. Strict rules will also make it illegal for wardens who reach incentive quotas to be rewarded with prizes of TVs, holidays or even cars. It aims to end the widespread practice of wardens blitzing drivers with often dubious tickets. Many councils have ditched targets, adopting instead what they called "key performance indicators" based on quality of service.

The ruling stresses that parking contractors and wardens should be judged not on the number of tickets issued but "according to how far desired transport objectives have been achieved". Department for Transport guidance says that instead of judging performance on the number of tickets issued, councils should consider "compliance statistics", the number of motorists appealing against fines, and the impact that enforcement has on road safety and congestion. (Source: Daily Mail, Aug/07)

A traffic warden was forced to give a ticket to a colleague by an angry passer-by who had just been hit with a parking fine. Keith Bee spotted the attendant had parked her marked van in a loading bay while she went to book motorists. He grabbed another warden and insisted he book her and to make sure he did, he took a picture of him printing out the ticket on his mobile phone and waited to see him put it on the van. Doncaster Council claimed the warden was parked legally because she was unloading "essential security equipment". Councillor Stuart Exelby added, "Although she was parked legally, the attendant issued a ticket to defuse a potential confrontation." Of course he did! (Source: Daily Mirror, Dec/06)

A lorry driver was given a £60 parking fine as he lay dead in the back of his cab. He is believed to have suffered a heart attack after pulling into a service station off the M74 in Lanarkshire, Scotland. The traffic warden stuck the fine to the truck's window because he had overstayed the maximum two-hour parking time. (Source: Sunday Mirror, May/06)

Traffic wardens slapped a £30 ticket on a digger just yards from the roadworks hole it was scraping out for the local council. Workmen in Bolton, Greater Manchester, parked the vehicle overnight across the road so it would be LESS of an obstruction. But the wardens issued the ticket because it was on a taxi rank.

Traffic wardens will get sweeping powers to fine motorists for driving offences in a controversial crackdown. The decision to hand more power to a figure many drivers love to hate risks a serious backlash, following mounting unrest over the proliferation of speed cameras on Britain's roads. But Ministers will argue that thoughtless driving offences, such as disobeying 'no right turn' signs or driving into box junctions when their exit is blocked, is not only dangerous but fuels traffic jams. Under the Traffic Management Bill, motorists will be trapped for such offences either by roadside cameras or on the witness statement of a new breed of 'civil enforcement officer'. The Bill makes it clear this will include traffic wardents. Automatic fines, like those sent out for speeding, where motorists may not know they have been caught until a letter lands on the doormat, will be triggered.

"It's important that we protect the majority of road users from the minority who flout the law, but the police should be able to focus on tackling serious crime," said a spokesman for the Department for Transport. "All we can say is that drivers can avoid penalties by obeying the law." Until now only the police have had powers to catch motorists for such offences, which the RAC says are rarely enforced, except in London, where the powers now to be extended nationwide are being piloted. "This removes the element of common sense, and the lesson that Government ought to have learnt from speed cameras is that apparently indiscriminate fining leads to individual hard cases, and that builds up into widespread public resistance," said Damian Green, the Shadow transport spokesman. "Motorists expect people enforcing the law to be trained to a very high standard, and this could entail thousands of new people being given enforcement powers. Are they all going to be properly trained?"

The RAC warned that shifting police powers to civilians may hamper the war on more serious crime. Unlike police, wardens will not be allowed to stop drivers. "Traffic police are effective in other areas of tackling crime, such as when you pull a car over for dangerous driving and do a check and it is a stolen car, or has stolen property in it," said RAC spokesman Edmund King. "A civilian parking attendant would not be able to do that. One of our concerns about speed cameras taking over from police is that they can only do one thing, catch someone speeding. If the Bill pushed it further and led to a greater demise of traffic police that would be a concern." Local councils will be allowed to set fines, although the Transport Secretary Alistair Darling will have powers to intervene over 'excessive' charges. The Bill will also create a network of 'traffic management officers' taking over routine tasks. Up to 550 traffic police would be freed for other duties. Darling has warned drastic action is needed if Britain is not to end up with 'roads so congested we can't move' in 20 years' time. (Source: The Observer)

Here is the full list of twenty minor offences for which traffic wardens will have the power to hit drivers with a fixed penalty:

1 Drivers who fail to proceed in a direction indicated by an arrow.

2 Failing to turn in the direction indicated by an arrow.

3 Failing to comply with the requirements in an unexplained regulation in the Road Traffic Act.

4 Drivers who turn right when it is banned.

5 Turning left when it is banned.

6 Drivers who make a U-turn where it is banned.

7 Drivers who fail to give priority to traffic from the opposite direction.

8 Drivers who pass a No Entry sign.

9 Passing through an all vehicles prohibited sign.

10 Drivers who enter a pedestrian zone.

11 Cars waiting in a pedestrian zone.

12 Drivers caught using a cycle lane.

13 Entering an all motor vehicles prohibited area.

14 Drivers entering an area prohibited to all vehicles except solo motorcyclists.

15 Solo motorcyclists who enter a zone where they are prohibited.

16 Goods vehicles which exceed a maximum gross weight limit.

17 Drivers facing the wrong way in a one-way street.

18 Prohibited drivers caught in a bus lane.

19 Prohibited drivers using a tramcar route.

20 Drivers caught in a box junction when the lights change.