IanW

I had a council traffic warden threaten to give me a ticket for parking my car across my drop kerb.

I wasn't on the pavement, and I was blocking my own access

[Edited by IanW - 12/3/2002 5:21:58 PM]

ChrisB

.

[Edited by ChrisB - 12/3/2002 5:21:32 PM]

Steve Williams

How crazy is that.....


Came out this morning to find a parking ticket, timed at 7-42am on my windscreen, it seems that I was parked on the pavement!!
I live in a quiet residential cul-de-sac.... and yes one of my wheels was approx 1 inch on the kerb in front of my own driveway, this is a dropped kerb also.



And they say that the government is not just revenue grabbing......

TonyBurns

iTrader: (3)

What exactly does it say on the ticket?
If its something like your obstructing an entrance way then complain to the council (id do that anyway if its outside your house).

Tony

Pavlo

take a picture to show your parked car position, and complain to the council

fecking theiving gits, and they wonder why traffic wardens get a bad rep?

paul

mutant_matt

They are barstewards it true!! When I had a complaint like this I took it to arbitration (Parking Appeals Service) and won due to the Council being unreasonable in a similar way.

Fight it and you should get off. This is an increasing problem and the Parking Ticket Appeals service are rejecting a growing number of tickets. You could also have a look at http://www.parkingticket.co.uk/em.html.

Matt

BuRR

Is it a local authority, or police authority parking ticket?

Dave P

I got a letter through not so long ago for a non paid fine. Never got the ticket on my car. Said I was parked in a prohibitted area. There is restricted parking but not where I park. I have been parking in the same area for around 7 years!

I reckon the git wrote the ticket, screwed it up and just waited for me to get the letter. That way 4 weeks on far to late to defend myself.

My understanding is that these guys are now commission based. the more they give tickets the more they earn.

Dave

AudiMan

Fight it all the way, this is one of the local councils biggest ways of generating revenue (having worked for one, I know). Take it to the appeals board as mentioned above, write, ring and e-mail your local councillor (that stirs things up good and proper).

scooby_xt_turbo

These people are unbelievable, i parked my Coupe Quattro opposite my house and 7 inches of the car's tail were OVER the yellow line, and i got a ticket. UNBELIEVABLE. the car was not parked on the yellow line, its tail was partly over the line. One of these days......
Fight it!!!




Audi Coupe Quattro Turbo 1985

steve McCulloch

What! - is it illegal to park partly on a kerb? that is not in a restricted zone... of any kind..

I know its not fair on disabled folk in wheelchairs but they'd have a field day in most parts of the country - everyone on my road parks partly on the kerb

mutant_matt

Parking with any part of any wheel on the kerb or pavement is illegal unless it is a Pavement Parking Zone with the appropriate signs

Matt.

rb5 286

iTrader: (2)

my brother had a ticket put on his car at 04.34 one morning, it was parked with 2 wheels on the pavement but the pavement leads to a wall 8ft away.

and the place people crossed the road was some 30ft in the other direction but he was told that he was stopping pedestrians getting passed.

1. pedestrians out at half 4 in the morning, in a dead end road just dont work somehow!!!

my mum did as mentioned above, took it to the council then to the local counciller and also got local papers involved just to make her point, they dropped the charge suprisingly, but BEWARE!!!

they are out while we're asleep.

wot better way to get everyone when the cars are parked up all night!!!

mista weava

had a similar incident, although i was in the wrong i fought it and lost.

fight it anyway, just to **** them about! hate the ******* me

i have one approx 50% of the ones i have contested, apparently the average is about 70% success overall

either that or send them 29 chqs for £1 and the 30th for £1.01 pence.

they will have to pay 35 pence to cash each chq and refund the 1p extra that you paid
might not like it or work, but sure to pi55 them off

hee hee
weava

marty_t3

I got 8 tickets for parking outside my own house.

When I moved in there were double yellows on the street but cars were parked there. The local plod shop was only 100 yards down the street so i went in an enquired about parking there.

They said "it's ok to park there because it's no longer a through road and the lines don't count.. the council just haven't got round to burning them off yet".

I'd been parking there for over 6 years and one day came out to find i (and everyone else on the street) had a ticket. I stormed down the the aforementioned plod shop and demanded an explanation for the ticket. I was told that since the lines were still on the road they were still enforcable and that i'd have to pay the ticket. I stormed out and went to confer with the neighbours. We put in a complaint and were told that the tickets still stood and we'd have to pay them. We wrote to the local paper who printed the story (making the police look petty). We still recieved "reminder" letters to pay the tickets. At this point i had 8 stacked up as i refused to park anywhere else as there was no justified reason not to park in front of my property.

The whole this came to an end when the police recieved a complaint from a local minister along with a petition with several hundred names.

The police had waited outside the church (also on my street) for the congregation to enter the church on the Sunday morning and then went round and blitzed all the cars parked on the street. As you can imagine this caused a few people to get upset.

The lines are still there almost 10 years after the road was blocked off but the police no longer issue tickets

ajm

get a nice big tin of bitumen paint and erase the offending lines!!

red_dog104

That is a classic! We live in an area where there is resident permit parking and I often return from work to find that I have to park right down at the other end of the street and walk a good distance to get to my house (not the best thing esp with having a scoob). This is due to people who don't have permits parking outside my house. These people NEVER seem to get tickets. My partner on the other hand had his permit displayed in his window, it was frosty one morning and he left the house only to find a parking ticket on his car. I wrote to the police/traffic wardens outraged at the injustice and wanted it clarified exactly why he'd got this. Reply came back that his permit was not clearly displayed?!?!?! My second letter explained AGAIN that it had been bad weather and obviously was obscured by frost. Not a good enough excuse apparently! I threatened them with the papers etc and told them to take us to court. They wrote back and apologised and said that it had been an error in judgement by one of their wardens and we didn't have to pay. Should think not eh?!?! TO55ERS!!!

steve McCulloch

Mutant matt

So what exactly is the offence of parking on a kerb?

I've had a ticket for parking I think it was within 15 metres of a junction, but you dont get these issued too often these days

Jen

Sounds like crap to me.

It's *not* an offense to park on the pavement unless you're in certain parts of London (red lines), your and HGV or there's a TRO on the carriageway e.g. Double yellows/other waiting restrictions.
The only time you'll get a ticket is for obstruction, therefore the only thing they could "do" you for is parking over a dropped curb as these are technically there to assist not just your access, but that of wheelchairs, pushchairs etc. which is a ticketable offence Might as well have a go arguing it though.

Good luck though - did sound like a overreaction on the traffic wardens part

Btw, just to put the other side of the story - most local govt's. (note the word *most*) don't acutally control the traffic wardens, and hense get none of the money (even though the COuncil's name is on the ticket), they are acutally controlled by the local constabulary. However, things are set to change with the onset of decriminalised parking...this means we'll be able to tell the Traffic wardens where to go (solving all the obstructive/dangerous parking. All funding obtained by fines currently goes directly to the Treasury at central government. Consequently, there is little incentive to vigorously enforce the existing waiting restrictions. Under a decriminalised parking regime, the Borough Council undertakes enforcement of parking restrictions, with all fines being retained by the Borough Council to finance the enforcement office. Any monies left over from this function must be utilised, in accordance with government legislation, on improving transport within the Borough. This can vary from subsidised transport fares to the installation of traffic calming measures Finally, some funding

Jen



[Edited by Jen - 12/3/2002 4:51:42 PM]

carl

Actually it's an offence to drive over the kerb at all. But in this case, it's a drop kerb (they put them in so you can drive over them) -- so I don't see an issue.

Remembering the days of "That's Life" there was a bloke who had a driveway built but the council wouldn't put in a drop kerb. So theoretically he broke the law every time he drove over the kerb to get to the driveway.

mutant_matt

Steve,

The offence is "parking with one or more wheels on the pavement" or words to a very similar effect. I know because I got a ticket for parking my Motorbike outside my house on the pavement, chained to a very large tree which was wider than the bike (and the pavement was about 12 feet wide). Don't ask me to look it up because I ain't gonna Ask BuRR nicely and he may help you

Jen, based on my above experience, are you sure there is no such offence? On your other point, even if the Local Authority doesn't get the revenue, a lot of the Traffic Wardens get a commission or bonus based on the number of tickets issued so they still have an incentive to be unreasonable (like my Dad who had been parking his Motorcycle outside his house for 20 years and all of a sudden started getting tickets, once three tickets were all stuck on the bike at the same time over a weekend when he hadn't left the house ).

Matt

mutant_matt

P.S. Jen, you know I was talking about Gatso's being sited on brand new roads with no accident history - well on my way to Bedford Autodrome on Sat, I saw a new Gatso (still with cover) on the new A6 Dual Carrigeway (which they are still building).....[img]images/smilies/mad.gif[/img]

(sorry for the off topic post)

Matt

Ski Ned

You ****!

Don't flipping park on the pavement when you're not supposed to.

Be a man and pay for your stupidity.

Luke

famous Hackney taxi repair garage close to river. Years they had problems with wardens putting tickets on the cabs parked outside.So the owner would paint out the lines. and put some dirt leaves etc so not to make ot look fresh. The council went mad but couldnt prove who was doing it. This went on for years..I believe th ecouncil has given up!!!

Jen

Absolutly positive it's not an offense (even checked in my training notes ) - appart form the exceptions given in my last post. You're advised not to in the highway code, but it's not one of those "must nots" it's advisory. The only reason you can't park on the curb is if you're obstructing it, e.g. prams/wheelchairs/really fat people can't get past...although tbh, they can argue that you're obstructing - your word against theres etc. so aways best not too...

Ian - Unfortunatly, blocking a dropped curb will get you a ticket as it's obstruction The idea of dropped curbs is not just access to your drive, it's for the public too... Bit silly though.

Matt - that's disgraceful Really p*sses me off when councils/constabularies ignore guildlines etc. [img]images/smilies/mad.gif[/img] Just gives people more ammo and I get more crap from people on the end of the phone. I know people won't, but I wish they'd write and complain!! I don't know how they get away with it

Jen

FLAT ERIC

iTrader: (1)

Think yourselves lucky.You could come home & find this at the end of your drive.



Mark

dasher

Under the Highway Act 1832 (or some year like that)(note. not the Highways Act 1980) it is illegal to drive on the footway/verge. Therefore by parking on the footway it is assumed you drove there. The exception is drive crossings, which if constructed properly have a concrete raft under them for protection. The council can claim maintenance costs from someone for damaging the verge/footway.

As a side note, i've seen many mobile speed cameras with guy sat in van, parked on verges past footways. Which means they must have broke the law by driving other the footway to get there.

regards

Daz

Attu

Its not against the law for a mobile speed camera Van to park on the footpath if there gathering evidence apparantly one rule for us and one for them.

mutant_matt

Steve,

Can you please tell us what the offence written on the ticket is please? (as I've convinced the offence "parked with one or more wheels on the pavement/kerb" is one I've seen on at least one ticket I've had)

Ta,

Matt

mista weava

eric - WTF??

hope you got the oxy-acetalene torch out

weava