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Original poster

!¬"£$%^&*() TRAFFIC WARDENS !"£$%^&*()

25 replies

Lisa78 · 18/05/2004 12:47

GRRRRR!!! Ok, ok, I was 17 minutes late back to the car, but £35 Bugger.
And the traffic warden had just finished writing the ticket out and she seemed so sodding pleased about it - I didn't even realise I was late! I said "Oh God, am I late back?" and she gave me a right look and said "Don't even try it with me Madam"
Bugger - I was going to do a sob story about babys nappy as well (which would have been a lie, I was yakking in the coffee shop )
Bugger bugger bugger, £35
No need for DH to know about this methinks!

OP posts:
Benjaminsmummy · 18/05/2004 12:52

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

When we got our parking ticket I at least had the satifaction of being able to say to DH "'I said that parking there was a bad idea".

twiglett · 18/05/2004 12:53

message withdrawn

Thomcat · 18/05/2004 12:57

Well I had two recent situations where the traffiv warden let me off AND both times, different wardens, they said i could stay where I was for a bit longer, as long as I wasn't going to be too long. Furst time it was banking acheque, 2nd time buying a presnt in a gift shop.

Bit of ying to go with the yang!

Original poster
Lisa78 · 18/05/2004 12:58

I know! There has been something in the local papers this week, this woman parked, got her pushchair out, put the baby in and then went to get a ticket. She had to queue for it, got it and came back to the car and they had given her a parking ticket! They said you had 7 minutes from parking to get a ticket and she had taken 9 - they had been stood there watching her!!!??? She appealed but no go - that sounds to me, like she is penalised for having a child in the car, it must have taken her at least 2 of those extra minutes to get the baby out and into the pushchair - I suppose they would say she should have got the ticket first
Bastard traffic wardens

OP posts:
Original poster
Lisa78 · 18/05/2004 12:59

No Thomcat, no! No ying please, this thread is for yang only

OP posts:
Fio2 · 18/05/2004 13:06

grrrrrr they swarm the place down here too

whispers< but they let us off the other day as dh said he had forgot to put the disabled badge in

august24 · 18/05/2004 13:09

Why don't you contest the tickets? It is standard practice to in the USA and since moving here we always contest them(usualy we have a reason such as bad signage etc) and we have had pretty good luck getting out of paying the fines

Original poster
Lisa78 · 18/05/2004 13:16

I've no grounds to contest it - its a 2 hour zone and I paid for 2 hours and was late Its not as if I even had a good excuse, we all went for coffee after baby group and I never really gave it a thought!

OP posts:
coppertop · 18/05/2004 13:19

A few years ago some @rse of a traffic warden gave me a long ranting lecture about how I'd parked a car. Everytime I tried to speak he just talked over me. Eventually I let him finish his rant - before pointing out that I don't actually have a car and that he'd got the wrong person. Cheeky b*gger!

august24 · 18/05/2004 13:22

I would still contest it. Sometimes problems do arise that are out of our control making one late. There was just an article in the Times about traffic wardens writing tickets for the Burroughs to make money. I know in Harringey where I live you can contest the ticket and then if they decide you do infact have to pay then you can still pay the initial fine as opposed to the doubled fine.

katierocket · 18/05/2004 13:23

coppertop

they are gits are they

I was 40 weeks pregnant and was wobbling back to car, meter was 1 min over and traffic warden was writing ticket, when he saw me I thought "I dare you, I just dare you". He just walked off very sheepishly.

Original poster
Lisa78 · 18/05/2004 13:25

do not mess with a pregnant woman

OP posts:
ChicPea · 22/05/2004 09:17

Do you know that:

  1. If you have a child in the car, the traffic wardens are not allowed to give you a ticket? My husband was in Hampstead and left his DD of 10 in the car while he bought me flowers on stall and traffic warden was in a rage when he got back to car and told him why he couldn't give him a ticket. This is worth noting so that you can leave kiddies in car with another adult and do what you have to do!!!!!!
  2. If you get to your car late and the traffic warden is in the process of issuing a ticket, as long as they physically don't put the ticket on your car, you are not liable for it!! Basically, you sneak up to your car with key ready and drive off. Admittedly, this is difficult with pushchair and kiddies but achievable when you are on your own
twiglett · 22/05/2004 10:25

message withdrawn

Janstar · 22/05/2004 10:46

I HATE traffic wardens - they are the lowest form of life...

Apologies to any mumsnetters who are traffic wardens but it's as so many people on this thread have said...they don't THINK, they just write these effing tickets no matter what the circumstances and then GLOAT as if people are not having a bad enough day.

They have the worst attitude towards the people they are ticketing. No wonder people want to hit them.

When I had a policeman boyfriend years ago he knew a few of them and I went to a couple of their centres a few times. They are basically people who are too thick to become police officers, they don't need any qualifications and they are all little hitlers who are totally impressed that they have managed to score a job with a uniform where they can hold someone's fate in their hands.

I'd rather be a prostitute than a traffic warden, I'd have more self-respect.

charliecat · 22/05/2004 10:55

Lol at Janstar, a traffic warden let my dp off last weekend and I was so grateful...dp just got in after being parked on double yellows for 10mins and didnt even say thanks to the bloke.
Considering he was quite within his rights to give us a ticket I thought dp was out of order, I had said Thanks Very much but thats not the point.

WideWebWitch · 22/05/2004 11:46

Are you sure about that kids in the car thing? There is a mumsnet traffic warden actually, come in and tell us whether it's true! (and please don't be offended by thsi thread)

lou33 · 22/05/2004 12:36

There was a traffic warden programme on tv once that mentioned number two. They said it was true.

ChicPea · 22/05/2004 12:36

Yes Twiglett, am sure, even have one of those things which turned up in the post with a fine saying I haven't paid for ticket and under the list of "Why you shouldn't pay it points", it says something to the effect "you don't have the written fine", etc. I haven't replied yet, too busy being a mother and logging into Mumsnet! But I didn't get the printed fine so there! Also, when I have been late back to car and have seen the warden issuing ticket and have driven off, I haven't received something in the post.

Levanna · 23/05/2004 19:40

The worst area I know for traffic warden swarms is outside St. Mary's hospital in Manchester. I got a ticket there when I couldn't find any spaces within what seemed like miles of the hospital, very pregnant at the time, so parked across the road! (Just like to point out I wasn't obstructing anyone in anyway). The hospital car parks were full . Mine wasn't the only car ticketed though and I've since noticed on any given day there are always several cars on Hathersage road with tickets. Not fair!!

geekgrrl · 24/05/2004 05:38

I have contested one - we got a ticket when parked in a max 2 hour zone - restrictions applied from 9am onwards, I parked up at 9:05am, misunderstood the 'disc zone' bit (I thought they meant residents' parking permits) and was only going to be half an hour anyway. I was devastated when I got the ticket (at 9:25, t%ssers), we were so skint at the time and £30 was an awful lot of money that we really couldn't easily afford. I was taking dd, who is disabled but hadn't received her blue badge at the time, to an appointment. Anyway, I wrote to them explaining that it was impossible for me to have exceeded their '2 hours after 9am' limit and they wrote back telling me that after careful consideration blablabla they think they were entirely in the right and that I should pay up.

geekgrrl · 24/05/2004 05:41

oh and they knew I had only stayed for another 10 minutes after the ticket was issued because I rang them in floods of tears demanding an explanation (9 months pregnant at the time)

rsv1000r · 24/05/2004 07:44

I had a traffic warden try to "give me a talking to" about where I had parked when displaying my son's blue disabled parking badge - I was perfectly legal - he just didn't like it - tough s**t really - he picked the wrong person - I took his number and reported him!

marialuisa · 24/05/2004 11:51

local paper had a story about a mum who was given a ticket because she got her DD into her coat and into her buggy before going to get the ticket (apparently she was seen arriving at 9.42am and her stick on ticket said 9.47am. When asked for comment the company said "everyone has their excuses".

They've since had to apologise as there's a campaign locally to take pictures of wardens parking illegally and publish them (which they do al the time).

SofiaAmes · 25/05/2004 00:18

geekgrrl, you should take the contesting further. I contested a ticket that was issued incorrectly and got the same sort of letter back as yours. I called up the parking permit people and said that I was really angry and was going forward to ticket court with my contestation if they didn't issue a letter and apology immediately as it was their mistake. They looked at it a little more closely and decided that in fact it was their mistake. In anycase, if the signs were not clear, (AND you have a disabled child!) I would go to ticket court. It seems that the judges are really quite reasonable and not in the pockets of the traffic wardens.

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