TRAFFIC WARDENS

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Gary Simmonds got a parking ticket while walking for 21 seconds to pay at a machine. He said, "I didn't even get the chance to put the money in. I shouted to the warden 'No!' but he slapped on a ticket and sped off on his moped. He could have given me a minute." Croydon Council in South London said Gary could have used a nearer machine, but can appeal over the £30 fine. (Source: Sunday People, Sep/07)

Driving instructor Roy Deacon, got a parking ticket while he fixed his brake lights at the side of the road. He had pulled over after another driver warned him his lights were not working. As he read the handbook to find out where to fit a replacement fuse, a traffic warden slapped a ticket on his windscreen. Roy said, "I would have been breaking the law if I had driven knowing both brake lights were out."

He added, "All the warden had to do was ask me what I was doing but he just put the ticket on the window and walked off. Later they said I hadn't bought a pay and display ticket but I was more concerned about not having any brake lights." Roy lost his appeal and now faces an £80 fine and £5 administration fee. A spokesman for Sutton council said, "The parking attendant was by the car for at least three minutes. It is not his responsibility to tell the driver to buy a ticket." (Source: Daily Mirror, Aug/06)

Lorry driver Michael Collins was on his way to collect a skip in London's Belsize Park when the road beneath him collapsed. A burst water main had created a deep hole where the front wheels of his 17-tonne lorry were stuck. While he was waiting for roadside assistance, a traffic warden appeared and stood on tiptoe to stick a parking ticket on his windscreen, while helpfully telling him, "You can appeal".

A tree crashed down on Nicky Clegg's car as she drove her 82-year-old mother and 11-year-old son. Police dragged the wrecked car, with crushed bonnet, smashed windscreen and broken wing mirrors, to the roadside and told Mrs Clegg she could leave it there and pick it up the following day. When she went back, a parking ticket was stuck on the window.

When Nadhim Zahawi of South London was thrown from his scooter and left lying in the road with a broken leg, a traffic warden from Lambeth Council slapped a £100 ticket on his bike.

Fred Holt went to the bank and two masked men burst in brandishing an axe and a machete. The robbers held the axe to a cashier's throat while money was handed over, and the customers were forced to lie on the floor. Later, they had to give statements to police. Officers told traffic wardens about the raid and asked them not to issue tickets. Mr Holt found a £30 parking ticket pinned to his windscreen for staying 20 minutes longer than allowed.

A driving instructor was issued with a CCTV parking ticket when his pupil stalled while attempting a three-point turn and could not restart the car. The offence? Parking more than 50 centimetres from the kerb.

These cases were taken from the book, "The Parking Ticket Awards: Crazy Councils, Meter Madness and Traffic Warden Hell". To buy a copy, visit www.appealnow.com/book.html

A traffic warden slapped tickets on three fire brigade vans as crews battled a blaze. He then told firefighters who complained, “If you’re not gone in 20 minutes I’ll give you another one.” The moron warden also tried to ticket an ambulance waiting to treat a victim of the blaze. One fireman said, “It’s hard to believe someone could be so stupid. He could clearly see smoke billowing from the building and hoses going in, but still wrote out the tickets while we were trying to save lives, he was busy going power mad.”

The warden claimed the vans were breaking tough parking rules in the area but council chiefs admitted he was not only daft but WRONG. A Westminster City Council spokesman said, “Emergency service vehicles are exempt from parking restrictions while on official duties.” The council said it had cancelled the tickets and taken up the issue with NCP, the contractor which controls its parking wardens.

The spokesman said, “We’ve told NCP to remind all attendants that emergency services provide a vital service and are exempt from parking restrictions on official business.” He pledged wardens would “err on the side of caution” when ticketing emergency vehicles in future. NCP said it had launched an full inquiry. Spokesman Ian Kavanagh added, “We regret any inconvenience this has caused to the fire brigade and any embarrassment to Westminster.”

A hearse was given a parking ticket as it waited to go to a funeral. The vehicle had been parked on double yellow lines outside Edinburgh-based funeral directors McKenzie & Millar when it got the £60 fine. Bosses at McKenzie & Miller claimed the hearse had been left unattended for around five minutes on Monday at Great Junction Street, Leith, while preparations were being made to load the coffin into the vehicle. The parking attendant observed that there was no activity around the vehicle, no coffin in the hearse and no activity inside the shop front of the funeral director's, therefore, with that information, it was concluded the hearse was not involved in a funeral.

A motorist parked her vehicle in the city of Nottingham, bought her ticket at the machine and stuck it on her window. She returned a few minutes later, with 40 minutes to go before her parking ticket expired, to find she had been fined - for sticking her ‘pay and display’ ticket on her window upside-down. A council spokesman said the onus is on the driver to make sure that tickets are displayed clearly “so if a ticket is upside down we are within our rights to issue a fine”.

A traffic warden halted a Holocaust service to ask a mayor to move his car. The congregation, including survivors of Hitler’s death camps, were left stunned as the jobsworth marched in. Mayor Peter Stoddart, whose twin brother was killed in the Blitz in London, had just given his speech and laid a wreath at the cenotaph in Swindon, Wilts. But insensitive warden David Davies, a former Liverpool cop, barged his way in mid-ceremony.

Then he told the civic leader and his driver to shift their official Honda Prelude car, which was parked in a loading bay outside the town hall. Mr Stoddart refused to do anything until the service ended and the warden walked off, warning him not to do it again. The mayor said, “He was being a jobsworth. You would think sometimes you could make allowances.” Mr Davies said, “I’ve got nothing to apologise for. I’ve done nothing wrong. I didn’t even give the car a ticket.” And Swindon Council parking boss Tony Foss insisted, “David has an exemplary record.”

Former RAF corporal Jack Mills was given a £40 fine because his disabled badge was upside down. Jack, who suffers with bronchitis, parked on the side of the road with his badge clearly displayed. He then went into a shop near his home in Norwood Green, Middlesex. He returned to find a ticket on his Fiat Uno. The warden told him it was because the badge was the wrong way round.

Traffic wardens can park on a city's yellow lines while doctors and nurses have to apply for permits to park outside a patient's home. The ruling comes after an inquiry was held into a parking attendant who parked his car illegally while he dished out £60-worth of penalty tickets. But Liverpool Council discovered a local traffic regulation that lets wardens park where they please in the line of duty. A spokeswoman for parking firm Citilink, said, "We cannot have doctors parking anywhere. They can appeal if it is a genuine emergency."