To think a traffic warden could allow me

[LynetteScavo]

to be just a couple of minutes late back to my car.

I mean everybody gets held up...10 minutes late, then fair play....but she could see me desperately charging towards my car and still slammed the ticket on the wind screen and took a photo.

I think she was mean.

I think I will bill it to work.

Last time it happened I drove round to the office..parked on yellow lines marched into the office and slammed the ticket down on the desk, adn drove off again.

It was paid with out question.

It's a bit yobbo to call traffic wardens scum IMO.

One struggles to feel affection for them, but scum? Come on.

I once got a ticket when I worked as a community midwife. I was delivering a baby - basically parked the car (on a yellow line) ran into the house and delivered the baby.

But I still feel I deserved the ticket. I chose to park illegally, therefore the traffic warden was perfectly right to give me a ticket.

Traffic wardens have a hard enough job with verbal abuse etc.

So yabu.

agedknees
if you had appealed that you would probably have got it overturned you know. I know people who have appealed for flimsy/false reasons and had them overturned. Delivering a baby is a pretty good reason!

"tis like going into a shop and trying to buy something for £5 when you only have £4.90"

ermm how is a fixed penalty fine the same as going into a shop and tring to blag a bargain?

I know a lot of people who could walk into lots of shops with £4.90 and come out with something with a £5 price tag.

we've got one now who has filled 2 books by 9am the council took loads of parking spaces away from a school in town where a lot need to drive as they live to far and he is like bloody Hitler the last warden didn't come out till 9 and tended to be a bit lenient to parents of young kids.

No chance Lynette.

I'm in an ongoing battle ATM with the PCSO's about the traffic wardens.Basically, the only palce the SNU taxi can drop ds3 off is either at my home or at school; school parents park so badly that this often emans they drop him on the zigzags. There is nobody else they can drop him with,and I have to be at the school to collect my other children, one of whom is also ASD so can't be just left untiln after pick up.

The SENCO tried to get school to allow us to use the unused disabled space but they keep that for the non existent disabled apstaff of the school apparently.

So far the taxi has only been threatened with a ticket but if they get one they stop dropping off there, and the LEA say we have no solutions so DH will ahve to be home. He is absed an hour away, not exactly workable.

Course, the two times last week builders for next door actually blocked access to my front door with the buggy (house fronts onto road) the PCSO's were nowhere to be found. Necessiating leaving the buggy outside for a few hours, in the road. bah

Lynette if you work in an environment where you have client meetings and can ask your company to cough up for a parking ticket on expenses then I doubt very much that a parking attendant earns more than you. I watched programme recently and the Westminster parking attendants were paid £77 gross for a 10 hour shift in London. If they were good at their job and issued their target number of tickets they were given the 'best' shifts, so could earn £99 gross for a 10 hour nightshift. They were subjected to horrible abuse. I felt really sorry for the poor chap who had come to work in the UK from Nepal and at the start of the documentary he was saying how wonderful the UK was and how there was no violence and everyone was so polite. By the end of the programme he had changed his mind completely and just looked so sad about his experience.

I would be pissed off if I got a parking ticket, but I would be angry with myself for being stupid, not with the person who is just doing a soul destroying job.

MissAnne I saw that and was ashamed to be Bridtish 9though have never yet shouted at a warden not had a ticket- well one but for a faulty amchine and the council withdrew it).

That chap from Nepal was solovely, completely unsuited to the role in terms of eprsonality, but good on him for working.

MissAnneElk...I work for DH, who pays me the minimum wage...I had to fight for that, as I was voluntary. I also don't have the privillage of being payed any commision, like other staff do. I work for the "bigger cause" apparnetly. It wasn't a client meeting as such (that does sound very important )...butI was dealing with clients in the office, and as I was the only member of staff there couldn't leave untill DH returned.

He is so far ignoring my sugestion he pays the penalty.

I am very cross with myself.

I still think she's mean though.

(Obviously my job does have some perks, as I can Mumsnet when nobody's looking. )

I am with those who say that traffic wardens are not to blame, doing a job etc etc. I do often have evil thoughts about those who work for the council and decide where to put parking bays and how much to charge for meters... but again, they have the job of raising funds within their council, so onwards with the blame. Still feel your pain on your first outing though, congatulations! Hope it goes better next time

alwayslookingforanswers, I meant that the £5 / £4.90 situation was like (eg) parking for 1h10min in a 1h bay.

Sometimes you can blag it, sometimes you can't, but you shouldn't expect to be able to, iyswim.

Living in London I've had a few parking tickets (sold car last year though, so now no issue for me). The thing is, whilst I accept that there needs to be rules for parking in order to avoid chaos, what I really object to is the way that Parking Wardens will deliberately target vehicles and issue tickets literally if someone is a second over the time.

I always see wardens noting the expiry times on cars, then returning before that time, ready to pounce and issue a ticket, regardless of whether the person is a mere thirty seconds late.

I wish there was an element of discretion in the job, rather than the bureaucratic rigidity.

"Don't park illegaly and it wont be a problem. Its a fine you choose."

That has to be a contender for the most priggish comment on Mumsnet ever
"

i couldn't agree more with that comment. i can't stand people complaining about getting parking tickets when they are in the wrong. it's a very simple system, if you park legally they can't give you a ticket.

I agree within limits MQ.

I dorecall my Grandad aged 80 getting a ticket for leaving his car on a yellow when the parking space was full at the hospital,and he was wondering if his wife were alive after being rushed in having a coronary arrest.

He wasn'tblocking anyone (was on road not in hospital) but that was the rules apaprenlty.

But in general I agree MQ.

Am expecting to see a lot of the silly parking today as the council have tarred both pavements between here nd school, AKA main car run. The aprents will then park in the yellows and zigzags claiming they had to (the pub 10minutes walk away offered free parking and a walking bus but the aprents refused).

It is horrible to get a ticket (and ruddy expensive) but they only give them out once you're exceeded the time you've paid for. Simples.

And if they let everyone who had a valid reasons for being late/parking where they shouldn't, then there'd be no deterrent. It doesn't always seem fair, but it's not fair to denigrate traffic wardens about it.

yes parking tickets are a pain the amount of the charge is usually grossly disproportionate the amount of time that car was parked after expiry time or whatever. BUT have to re-state that there is a minimum time allowed after expiry before a ticket will be issued so it is incorrect to state that tickets will be issued thirty seconds after a pay and display ticket has expired.

how about a scenario where a driver is looking for a parking space, but vehicles remain in the bay without being penalised? would probably end up in threads complaining of this. re the comments that suggest that theres never a traffic warden around when you need one. very frustrating but sadly true.

some of the scenarios described on this thread sound as though they may have qualified for a ticket to be rescinded by a council. its just that many many drivers dont know that they can appeal or the circumstances when exemptions may apply. many of those that DO know cant be bothered, it IS time confuming and all the more frustrating if you forget to challenge it promptly and the charge goes up. challenging can be a lengthy process where the challenger is at a disadvantage in terms of technical knowledge and likelihood of a favourable outcome. so people pay.

final comment; if you get a ticket and believe it was unfairly issued or that you have valid reasons for being late or whatever, id suggest to write in and explain. councils have an internal cancellation criteria that they adhere to - worst ways you will be given another chance to pay reduced fine. if its any consolation, westminster has a very very very poor success rate when their parking tickets have been challenged by the adjudication service.

I wouldn't wish the job of a traffic warden on anyone. I agree that if you park illegally, you get a ticket. The roads would be chaos with no one to police them.
However there are some TW's who are complete jobsworths.
I parked in a disabled parking space in my local multistorey attached to shopping center (mum has a blue badge and I was taking her shopping so all legal). Mum's diuretics were working full strength so I hurriedly parked and had 1 tyre on the cross hatch zone to the side but was not blocking anyone to get her to the loo. Also had 8m old DD2 with me so a fairly stressed start to the day. When we got back to the car, a traffic warden had come into the multistorey and given me (and 4 other cars) a ticket for the same thing. Now I know I was just in a hurry, but some disabled drivers (like my mum) have difficulty in parking straight. I thought he/she was targeting vulnerable people and complained the same day. My ticket was recinded, and I fought for all the others as well, they were also, and the warden in case was told that some degree of leniency was needed in these cases.

it is a bit mean when she sees you running towards the car but I suspect any sympathy she might have had for people in that situation has long worn off with all the abuse traffic wardens get.

There was a tv programme on ?channel 4 the other week about the way that traffic wardens are treated by the public - it was so shameful. ALso apparently although they don't have official targets they get nagged by their bosses to get a certain number or they are out of a job

depends how late you were: in London, a traffic warden should revoke the ticket if you're within 3 minutes if you turn up while they're writing it.
if they tell you they can't, then they're breaking the bylaws of London.

don't know how it holds for the rest of the country.

I am more grateful than ever, then, to the warden who saw me hurrying my limping daughter towards the car last week and studiously turned his back on us while I helped her in (she'd twisted her ankle when I first asked her to speed up, so we were a good five minutes late).

We did say a heartfelt thank you to his back!

Thank god for council-managed traffic wardens, that's all I can say.

The alternative is having areas 'policed' by those awful rip off firms who clamp your car, and then drive you to the nearest ATM in order to withdraw £250 or so to pay to have the wheelclamp removed.

Is very harsh to call traffic wardens scum. They are doing their job, for shit wages.

Well, as I didn't give her any abuse....do you think she might be a bit more lenient towards my car next time?

Much as I understand traffic wardens are just doing their job, my experience so far has been less than positive.

My car broke down outside Oxford Circus station, in between the traffic lights and the huge (busy) junction. So while we are sat there waiting for a tow truck the TW tells me we need to move the car or get a ticket, they only stop bugging us when we say "sure, as long as you help us push it across the junction". Funnily enough the car stayed where it was, without a ticket.

Second time my car broke down, again, this time the brakes went. So I stopped it wherever I could actually stop it safely. Got out of the car, called my dad and burst into tears. While I'm on the phone the traffic warden is wandering round, close enough to smell the brakes, waits for me to get off the phone and says "you need a ticket to park here", when I stammered out I hadn't parked so much as broken down he said "I heard"

i can't stand people complaining about getting parking tickets when they are in the wrong. it's a very simple system, if you park legally they can't give you a ticket.

thats not true at al1. i got a prking ticket for overstaying my time, despite the fact that i still had over an hour on the ticket. my parking ticket said i had been parked and issued with a ticket at 4pm, when i had actually returned to and moved the car at 2.45pm. fortunately i saw a policeman as i was pulling away who was willing to confirm the ticket had been given wrongly - i still had to go tp court to get it overturned.