Parking Tickets

Thanks Andy.

The limit was 30 mph (as I said outside a parade of shops).

I was parked just beyond the end of the double-yellow lines and within 18 inches of the kerb.

Was I legally parked?

quote:

Doesn't a dual-cariageway need to have a separating border between the two directions of traffic ?

Could be grass, could be a barrier.

Slightly different from a 4-lane single carriageway IMO .............

Quite. The number of lanes are a red herring either way as Andy pointed out. If my obstruction was on a 70mph clearway dual carriageway then she could have thrown the book at me.

Andy, perhaps I'm being a bit cheeky here, but I meet the lass now and again and sometimes she does the right thing (as I could state but it wouldn't be relevant here) but I'd like to be able to say to her that, according to an experienced police officer who will remain anonymous, I was legally parked. It may help me as well as her.

She's quite a pretty young thing too, not that it's relevant either lol

steve,
was it a clearway? when you say outside some shops, what area is this?

Sometimes its difficult to say w/out being there - I'm not dodging the question - just need more facts before deciding...

No signs stating that it's an urban or other clearway, just double yellow lines in places, and waiting limited to 20 mins in the layby. I'd been there for 5 mins.

a balaced reply is to ask the officer what evidence they are going to use to support their suspicion you have committed the offence. if you ask fairly and (without resorting to gobbing off etc) you are entitiled to get a reasonable reply.

I don't and didn't gob off. "Causing an obstruction on a dual carriageway" was her answer to the above question.

I wanted to say,

"The road markings state I can park here, so if you think they permit obstructive parking I suggest you contact the County Council and get them changed."

She cut me short by threatening me with a ticket - i.e: no argument, I'm the Law so do as I say or else.

The point of contention is the fact that the double-yellos end just before the layby begins. If they continued as far as the layby reaching its full width then there'd be no argument. I was parked immediately after the end stop of the double-yellos in the bit where the layby begins to widen from the main carriageway - hence the back end of my car sticking out about a foot into the inside lane.

So, was I legally parked?

I've had a new and related issue.

I woke up this morning and the car had gone.

Here is the letter. I have already sent it. Also to my MP, the Mayor and two local papers. I do not think I shall be alone in so doing.
_____________________________________________
Re: Enclosed Parking ticket, Removal receipt

Dear Sir or Madam

I write to protest the enclosed receipted parking ticket and fine.

In essence you stole my perfectly legally parked car (grounds, therefore, that “the offence did not occur” and (perhaps) “The traffic management order was invalid”).

I want not only a complete refund of all the monies you have extorted from me, but also the expenses that this has incurred for me, which I list below.

Should you not be prepared to settle all of this, and accompany it with a full apology and explanation, then I shall contact my solicitor with a view to suing you, and I shall suspend payment of my Council Tax direct debit until the disparity is made up. You can try to jail me for not paying that.

Here is what happened.
In order to accommodate works on the sewers on my street, a parking suspension was imposed. Fair enough, and for the duration I parked elsewhere, as did my neighbours. Initially the restrictions were to run from the start of the works until, I believe, the 24th September. However the work on the particular stretch outside my home, and opposite it, finished ahead of time, and duly the restriction notices were REMOVED. Incidentally, today (21/09) they were removed along almost all the street. Perhaps you will give parking tickets to all the residents tonight.

On the morning of 21st September I see from my window that my car has been stolen, it had been parked outside number 38/36. Stolen by you as it turns out. I repeat, and I have photographic evidence, that the restriction notes had been removed, and all of the residents had started parking there again. This was not only sensible (the road works were finished) but considerate as there were/are many other similar restrictions locally creating a demand on residents’ parking spaces.

I simply cannot believe that one of your ticket inspectors was so stupid as to think ticketing a car that was parked somewhere that had once had a restriction on it in the past was justified. Still more I cannot believe that the occupants of a tow-truck didn’t simply look but then proceeded to remove my vehicle.

This is nothing short of an outrage, and is I suppose the inevitable consequence of paying people according to how many parking tickets they give out and removals they make. Spurious, ill-judged and plain wrong decisions will be made. You are, however, paying them with MY council tax money, and it is a waste of the highest order. Haringey is already a truly awfully-run and horrible place to live, but you are making it far, far worse.

Had I been a visitor, I should, by definition not have had the chance to see a sign that had already been removed. On this basis I claim that the parking restrictions were not made visible, and therefore that the ticket should be rescinded, the fees waived and returned to me.

On the basis that you took my property without any kind of permission, in the face of protests from other local residents (see below) and in direct contravention of what is right, moral and just plain common sense (the water works on that particular stretch of road had been finished for more than a week, thus negating the need for any parking restrictions) I claim some recompense.

I was parked legally, not obstructing anything, in no-one’s way and still you took my car. I pay you for the “privilege” of being able to park outside my own home as it is, and then you do this. I had to postpone a meeting with someone who had flown in for it, and leave work early in order to spend a much longer journey home to get to your pound.

I demand a full and complete apology, and the below expenses, in addition to the refund of the money you have extorted from me.

I have always known Haringey Council to be one of the worst run, most inefficient organisations I have ever come across. Every year you take yet more money for delivering an increasingly piss-poor service, but this really is bureaucracy gone completely mad. Even the credit card machine at your pound was not functioning, prompting the terse response “well you’d better go and get some cash then”. Quite literally adding insult to injury. Do you have no shame?

Expenses incurred:

Telephone calls (est.) £2.00
Postage 4 x 30p £1.20
Extension to Zone 2 Travelcard £1.10*
2 hours lost working time @ £20 p.h. £40.00
Parking ticket £40.00*
Impound fee £150.00*

Total £234.30

(*Copy receipts enclosed)

If you would like to see the photographic evidence of the above I can make it available to you at a cost of £1.50 per photograph and a £20 administration charge to cover my time, postage and packaging and so on.

My neighbour (Ms xxx xxxxx, xx Brampton Road, who is prepared to confirm where my car was parked, and that the restriction notices had been removed) informs me that it took you two hours from the issuing of a fraudulent parking ticket before you stole my property. Alarmingly quickly for an otherwise totally inefficient organisation. I shall expect a similarly speedy response to this letter, including your cheque and an apology, and preferably a personal one from “Parking Attendant 118”


Rod Smith

Copies to David Lammy MP, Eddie Griffith, Haringey Advertiser, Enfield and Haringey Independent

steve,
not having seen where you are on about, and relying on what you say, it would appear you were parked ok. U may have been obstructing the highway, tho

Thanks Andy. So I was obstructing the highway - that part I dont contest, but I was nevertheless legally parked and thus any ticket issued could have been quashed.

Steve,

providing what you have described is correct. I mean no insult saying that - just stating the obvious. PS the penalty for obstructing the highway ia similar to that for parking, so be careful

It just seems to me that parking in pre-designated car parks has become a ludicrous bloody rip off. It annoys me especially in shopping centres where one has come along with a view to spending one's money. The least the parasites could do is provide safe parking for us while we part with our hard earned cash.

A little fair-play would ease a good many tensions.

EW

I fought the law and, er, I won!

(page 2)

My original letter to them (scroll up) which was correctly, but with delicious irony described as "convoluted" by our Graham-with-a-quick-reminder, explains the situation.

And they are paying the "expenses" I claimed.

With the situation as it is in the world of savage weather, earthquakes, potential pandemics and so on I did wonder if I was being altogether too petty. Life just isn't fair sometimes. However the feeling of having overturned an injustice - even a small one - is great.
I shall donate the money to the D.E.C. - it was the principle of the thing that pissed me off.

Trebles all round...

Rod

Well done Rod !

Result.