Metropol

i was reading in the daily mail the other day (it wasn't mine) that some local authorities are planning to enforce parking bylaws with cctv (they don't need to stick a ticket on your car window, you get a ticket in the post, like a speeding ticket).

as illustrated below, in my home town (kings lynn), cars continually park on double yellow lines to pick up food from various takeaways located down london road. this causes elderly and inexperienced drivers to suddenly change lanes with no indication and it causes tailbacks as people wait for a space to overtake, all because a few lazy cunts can't be arsed to walk 100 yards to a car park. they've just got to get their lamb clogger in their face immediately.



a few years ago, i might have said that such monitoring by councils was yet another attack on motorists, but actually, i think many of the problems we see in town centres and the roads generally today are actually caused by ineffective enforcement. take mobile phones in cars. obviously using them whilst driving is stupid, yet people still do it, even though the offence is endorsable drivers risk loosing their license. perhaps it needs to be 6 points / £5000 fine. maybe that would make people think twice before doing it.

i say bring these parking enforcement changes on.

but would such enforcement improve traffic conditions in your town centre?

I think idea of 'CCTV-generated Parking Tickets' has been around in some parts of London for a while; obviously it saves on resources patrolling the streets, and removes the possible excuse of "someone took the ticket off my windscreen, I didn't know". But it does create the inherent danger that stopping for 10 seconds to drop someone off, just as the picture was taken, lands you with a parking fine - which would seem extreem punishment for such a misdemeanor.

There have been cases of unscrupulous private parking companies at train stations using this method to increase revenue. Certainly, if I was presented with such a ticket I would want to see multiple time-stamped images which would confirm the length of time I was there.

Mark, the road shown in your picture appears to have a parking bay on the left hand side near the 'quality takeaways'; or is this just part of the slip-lane for the bus stop? The road (building-to-building) also seems to be quite wide, and yet the pavement area is wider than normal, suggesting that (as in Plymouth) the surface used for driving has been narrowed to restrict the area available for parking.

The answer, of course, is to get your takeaways delivered. That way you can enjoy a nice glass of "Corton Charlemagne 1999" and peruse Metropol while waiting for your meal to arrive

i certainly don't think private companies should be able to issue tickets in this way (at present, i don't believe they can).

it is indeed supposed to be a bus slip lane with some parking. problem is, typical laziness of some people, they will actually park on the opposite side of the road on the double yellow line because they can't be arsed to cross the road with their food.

i'm not sure why the pavement is so wide on the left side, there isn't that much that side of the road anymore, maybe only a couple of takeaways, a newsagent and a suit hire shop - there used to be a kfc there but that's been moved to the industrial estate.

Dr Lobster* wrote:i certainly don't think private companies should be able to issue tickets in this way (at present, i don't believe they can).

Am I not mistaken in thinking that most councils (or London at least) franchise the parking ticket enfocement bit to private companies?

cdd wrote:

Dr Lobster* wrote:i certainly don't think private companies should be able to issue tickets in this way (at present, i don't believe they can).

Am I not mistaken in thinking that most councils (or London at least) franchise the parking ticket enfocement bit to private companies?

that is true, but i was under the impression that the legislative framework for private companies to use cctv to issue tickets was not in place, i'm not sure, i could be wrong on that one.

Dr Lobster* wrote:...but i was under the impression that the legislative framework for private companies to use cctv to issue tickets was not in place, i'm not sure, i could be wrong on that one.

You may be right, in which case it would be down to individual councils/unitary authorities/administrative areas to do so. How random.

That could lead to an inequality in the way people were governed, taxed and prosecuted within the UK. How crazy! I won't hear a word of it

("Pass me my free prescription....over the border")