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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

to suggest that it is very money grabbing when...

27 replies

Doodledumdums · 02/05/2013 14:51

...you have to put you car registration number in car parking machines?

I see no reason for it other than the car park wanting to make more money!

Surely if I have paid for a space for an hour and only use half of it, then it is up to me if I want to give someone else my ticket so they can use the rest of it?

I used to do this quite frequently, and have had people do it for me in the past, but now it is no longer possible in most car parks I go to.

Hmmmmph, sorry....not a particularly important problem, but it just annoys me!

OP posts:

thefirstmrsrochester · 02/05/2013 14:54

Not experienced this myself but have heard about it and understand the etiquette is to put P155 0FF as reg number. Dying to do it.

Original poster

Doodledumdums · 02/05/2013 15:20

That is a very good idea! Although i'd worry that the parking inspector people would give me a fine because my ticket didn't match my registration number. If that doesn't happen though, then I think it is definitely worth doing!

OP posts:

GreenShadow · 02/05/2013 15:21

It caused so much controversy here when they tried to introduce it a few years back, that the council had to remove the machines and re install standard ones.

Original poster

Doodledumdums · 02/05/2013 15:24

Really?! Good on the people of your area for fighting it! I am tempted to write to my MP and complain! Not only is it money grabbing, it is time consuming to have to put your reg number in each time, and causes queues at the ticket machines!

OP posts:

PeterParkerSays · 02/05/2013 15:30

Sorry but you generally only have to put the numbers from the reg plate in it.

It is money grabbing though - as you can't give your ticket to someone else if you have time left at the end of your shopping etc.

Prawntoast · 02/05/2013 15:32

YANBU, but the council would argue that they have to raise cash somehow. I just think it chips away a little more at our ability to be generous albeit in a small way, to a stranger.

bollockstoit · 02/05/2013 15:33

You would get a ticket if the right reg isn't on the ticket unfortunately. I would love to do that if I had a spare £60 though .

bollockstoit · 02/05/2013 15:34

" I just think it chips away a little more at our ability to be generous albeit in a small way, to a stranger"

yy to this^

MaxPepsi · 02/05/2013 15:42

There was something about this on the Chris Evans Show the other week.

10 things we all do that are actually commiting a crime .... 'sharing' parking tickets was one of them. I looked it up as I do it all the time unless I'm claiming expenses but couldn't find anything about it.

Original poster

Doodledumdums · 02/05/2013 15:42

Yes it really does :-( It is a sad state of affairs when we can't even carry out small acts of kindness to strangers. I was particularly annoyed today as a very elderly couple parked next to me as I was just about to leave, and I still had over an hour left on my ticket, and I just wanted to be able to give it to them!

OP posts:

Original poster

Doodledumdums · 02/05/2013 15:47

How on earth could it possibly be a crime?! If you've paid for a spot then you've paid for it surely?!! You pay for an amount of time, it's not unlimited! Grrrrr, so annoying! Also, I had to pay for a minimum for 0-2 hours today, even though I only needed to go to the post office. If there was a ten minute option then i'd have picked that!

OP posts:

SummerRainIsADistantMemory · 02/05/2013 15:48

The day ds2 was in hospital for day surgery a lovely man gave us his ticket, he'd paid for the day but only been there an hour. It made an otherwise stressful day a little bit easier and I'll always be grateful.

I've made an extra effort since then to spread the parking love in the hope of making someone else's shitty day a little better.

I'd be extremely pissed off if I couldn't do so in future.

givemeaclue · 02/05/2013 15:51

When in London if I have a travel card for the day and I am leaving London by train I always give it to someone else At u.the station .Its nice to be able to do things like that

nancerama · 02/05/2013 16:36

Very money grabbing. When DH was DP and had his own flat the local B&Q had this system - parking was free for 2 hours, but you couldn't return for 24 hours. Annoying and pointless for a DIY shop. If you ran out of supplies half way through a job you couldn't go back until the following day.

fluffyraggies · 02/05/2013 16:44

Oh giveme you have jogged my memory! Travel cards. In the 80s in London you used to be able to bus and train hop all over London on a £2 travel card. My mates and i always used to give them away at the end of our journey (if it was before midnight ) Often used to get given them as we walked into stations or waited at bus stops.

Happy days.

I agree it's shitty not to be able to pass on a parking ticket. The time in that space has been paid for once. Surely that's enough FGS :(

LRDtheFeministDragon · 02/05/2013 17:16

Yes, it really annoys me.

A while ago I got stopped by a traffic warden who ticked me off for offering my ticket to someone else as I left. I pointed out there was nothing to say I couldn't do this (there wasn't). Now there are big signs up saying tickets are non-transferable, and loads of them want your reg number (which is fucking annoying if, like me, you can barely remember the bloody thing without checking 90 times! ).

I just used to like the little bit of brightness it added to the day when you gave someone your spare end of ticket or they gave it to you.

grimbletart · 02/05/2013 17:23

One of our local car parks has another wheeze for getting extra money.
They put up their parking fee for one hour from £1.10 to £1.15. So many people seem not to carry 5ps in their purses or pockets (they tend to get put into charity boxes for example - as I know from counting charity box donations! - so they don't have a 5p, which means they put in £1.10 and the machines don't give change.

gordyslovesheep · 02/05/2013 17:23

yeh I think it's mean - I always leave my ticket on the ticket machine - especially as out town centre CP has a choice of £1 for 30 mins then £3:00 for 2 hours ...nothing in between

plus I parked in one recently miles away from the machine, in my new car, and put the wrong reg in - it was the last of my change s I had to go home!

Tailtwister · 02/05/2013 17:25

I came across this in the Lake District. There was also a notice saying that there was a camera recognition thing in the car park (I guess there were no wardens), so the number you entered needed to be accurate. That was in Grasmere I think.

Original poster

Doodledumdums · 02/05/2013 17:27

I may actually write to the council and ask for a sensible reason why tickets are non transferable. If 6 people all park in one space for ten mins each, but are forced to pay £2 each for an hours parking, then they are potentially getting £12 per parking space per hour, which is ridiculous!

Money aside though, it just stamps on the potential for strangers to be kind to one another.

Oh don't even get me started on hospital parking summerrain....I find that horrible! Charging potentially very vulnerable people is just wrong IMO. Very glad to hear that the kind man gave you his ticket though.

OP posts:

aldiwhore · 02/05/2013 17:28

They do it in Mold. There's always a heap of people quickly running back to their cars to check the reg plate. So it's educational you should know your reg number (I think, not really sure why).

I would say YABU, but the car park is only 20p!!

I DO love giving a random stranger an hour of free parking elsewhere, it's good for the soul and actually costs me nothing, so even better.

LifeofPo · 02/05/2013 17:31

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Xmasbaby11 · 02/05/2013 17:32

I agree. We have those car parks around our way, and it is money-grabbing.

ilovesooty · 02/05/2013 17:38

For years there have been notices in london asking you not to give your travel cards to people: possibly because addicts try to sell them on. The car reg machines are simply a money spinner, but if they were removed I think they'd just put the charges up.

Don't get me started on hospital car parking: it's just inhumane to inflict what they do on people who are already stressed and worried.

andubelievedthat · 02/05/2013 19:52

so, car ashtray with lots of 5p in, in Glasgow you can pay for 10mins ,but your max stay is 3 hours? better than that ,in some streets you have to go to a shop(non particularly close )and buy a ticket !

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