to think the police and traffic warden were unreasonable

[brizzledrizzle]

This morning I parked in a 1 hour parking zone, free for the first hour. I parked in between two cars and had enough space to get out. When I came back, 5 minutes before my time was up two other cars were parked either end of my car and so close that I'd have needed a tin opener to get out - I had about 2 inches at one end and 1 at the other.

The police station was over the road so I went to explain to them what the situation was, they could do nothing to help because 'the law isn't being broken' so I returned to my car. 15 minutes later I was over time and no sign of the owners of either car. Predictably the traffic warden came along, tapped on my window and said that I'd been there for over an hour. I explained the situation, pointed to the two cars and said that I'd asked at the police station for help.

15 minutes later, I was still there and the traffic warden returned, they were slightly apologetic but said that rules were rules and issued a ticket. I was fuming and tore a strip off the motorist when he returned to the car, apparently it was my fault because I chose to park there!

Is it worth appealing the ticket and should the police have done something? Was the traffic warden being a jobs worth who should be complained about?

We have parking like this in our local town. It isn't marked into bays, it's just one long bay painted in wherever there isn't a gateway or something that needs to be kept clear. So not marked for individual cars if you see what I mean. I can imagine how this has happened, and I think OP has been very unlucky to meet two parking wankers at once.

Ok my turn, 10 points for twatish sarcasm whilst completely misunderstanding how the police log incidents.

Misunderstanding? Think that may be you, because...

Walking into a police station to report anything is as about as effective as a chocolate tea pot. They are notorious for slopey shoulders. If you want anything taken seriously you phone WHERE ALL CALLS ARE LOGGED. Two cars were causing an obstruction to op and as mad is it sounds,the call operator could have dispatched a unit to attend

All calls are logged yes, but that just means they log the call. It doesn't mean they take any more action than you get from walking into a police station. No call operator worth their salt is going to dispatch a unit for this.

Phoning 101 and logging it is going to appear on an urban myths website in the future and it's going to say something along the lines of 'some shite made up on Mumsnet'