Urgent! Advice needed - moral dilemma

[titchy]

This is nothing to do with parenting or children so I hope you all don't mind my asking for advice.

I stupidly got a parking ticket a couple of days ago, but the warden wrote out my car registration incorrectly. Hooray I thought I've got away with it, but now I'm having guilty thoughts of some poor so and so who will be getting rude letters in a few weeks threatening him/her with a thousand ound fine. The car is only three years old, so the person who gets the letters will have a fairly new car too and if they can afford a three year old car then maybe they'll be able enough to argue that it wasn't them, or maybe the incorrect registration doesn't exist.

I know I'm trying to justify not paying and grasping at straws, but dh says I'd be silly to pay when I can get away with it, and most people would take advantage. I'm feeling a little guilty though.

What would fellow M'netters do?

Thanks!

Titchy

So are all parents supposed to own small cars purely to fit into small car parking spaces?, i agree if a store wants my custom then provide me with a parking space that i can easily get in and out of my car without the risk of hitting the car next to me, if not i will go else where.

And again on parking, am i the only person to get really p**d of with people parking out side my house, we now have a disabled parking bay, but before we did i used to boil with rage, i dont ever park outside somebodys house purelu because of how annoyed i get.

Sorry meant purely!!

Lil, if they made all the parking spaces big enough for the giant 4x4s there would be a lot less spaces for everybody - including the giant 4x4s. And taking up 2 is just anti social.

I am already regularly pissed off by coming back to my (tiny) car and finding a bloody great 4x4 parked 6 inches from my driver's door - the driver having allowed plenty of room for him/gerself to get out the other side.

oops. herself!

I tend to come down on the side of the small driver here I'm afraid although I am currently in the process of upsizing to a Fiesta Seriously though, DH has a large car that I regularly drive (due to the lure of free fuel) but I still think that you have to accept that if you drive a big car it is harder to park, get out of etc and so make more effort. And even with a small car it is not particularly easy to post DS into the back if someone with a big one has parked badly.

So all women know your place, get back in your Fiestas and be grateful!

Isn't it weird how people have a go about 4x4s and MPVs, and don't want to accomodate them. Bigger cars are tons easier in getting children in and out, you don't have to bend for a start, as they are higher.

I think its about time mums got a car to suit them and their families, men have been having all the fun for years!

Ok, feel slightly guilty about posting this extremely trivial moral dilemma, but quiet moment at work and feel everyone's had their chance to put in their twopenneth about carparking. Last week someone gave me a Ghanaian (sp?) pound coin in the midst of my change ? could have been the bread shop, newsagent, chemist ? just about anywhere. I notieced it looked slightly different (but v similar to our UK pound coins) whilst handing it over to buy something at the pet shop, so pointed it out and took it back. Didn't feel it fair to try and palm it off on a small shopkeeper, so tried it in a council parking meter. Obviously it is slightly different in some way, so wasn't accepted. I'd just be interested to know what other people would have done. Also, where I can dispose of it.

Oh, I don't mind MPVs - they're not as fat! They also often have sliding doors, don't they? It's things like the LWB Landcruiser that really take up space, and there are 100s that size round here. (Some of them even go off-road up farm tracks occasionally...)

There should be more P & C spaces but unfortunately they're not legally enforceable. (In fact neither are the disabled spaces in private car parks. All the supermarkets can do is leave a "polite notice" on a side window.)

Frieda, it might work in a vending machine or something? I have no qualms about recirculating a coin like that which has been circulated to me! (But agree about not using it in a small shop.)

Otherwise give it to a charity shop? I think they can use foreign coins the same way they use stamps?

I don't mind MPVs etc but do object to those stupid bull bars used in Fulham. They crush children in car accidents but people like them because they make them feel big.... grrrr.

Absolutely, Aloha ? with you all the way there! Why on earth do people need these TOTALLY POINTLESS fashion accessories on their cars! It's not just Fulham, either ? I'm always having to pull over into an improbably small space (in my Micra, I hasten to add) to let some idiot past in a ridiculously overdecorated 4x4. Why, oh, why?

Lil I wasn't trying to imply that women shoud drive small cars. The reason I drive a small car is because my DH is provided with a large one by his company and I find that as a family we do not need two large cars ie it is not the case that he has the big manly car. I find my small car very practical for my needs ie 3 days nursery drop and commuting and 4 days spent with my DS.

Yes get a car that suits your needs - but if it won't fit into a parking space how is that suiting your needs?

Although I agree with you that it is very annoying when all the P&C spaces have been taken because a) there are never enough in the first place and b) loads of people use them who shouldn't.

You're not allowed to fit bullbars any more but people who already have them can keep them. (Logical or what?)

The multi-story carpark in the town where my parents live, which is festooned with concrete pillars which line up beautifully with the back doors, has special extra-wides spaces on the top level for 4x4's - 3 spaces between each pillar rather than 4. It doesn't stop those who are too lazy to drive to the top level from parking their 4x4's in the normal area though, and although there aren't any P&C spaces, you aren't allowed to use the extra width spaces if you have a child to get into a normal sized vehicle.

Just googled bullbars and discovered that while you can't buy a new vehicle fitted with bullbars, you can have them fitted the minute you leave the dealers.

BUGGER.

However I also found this story which should raise a few ironic smiles:

I do think this kind of incident should be compulsory for bullbar owners, actually.

That happened last Friday (24/1), by the way!

I think if you choose to drive a big car, you shouldn't be surprised that it's a Pain in the Proverbial to park; just because one can afford to buy & drive a big car doesn't give that person more rights.

Anyway, 4x4s have higher death rates for their occupants (lovely tendancy to roll) and they're especially talented at killing cyclists, other motorists & pedestrians. Bullbars, of course, only make your car all that more deadly to everybody else. Bullbars should be banned. Plus big cars guzzle petrol; do you really want to fund the terrorists?

I guess with the emphasise on getting people out of their cars and onto public transport no one in authority is going to take any notice of complaints about parking space size. They don't want the cars in towns in the first place.

4x4 drivers give us a laugh where we live in Scotland because they seem to think they are invincible. (Sweeping generalisation here, I'm sure Mumsnet 4x4 drivers are not like this!)There's a very flood-prone road near to us, which the police close quite frequently. "Disco" drivers in particular seem to think the closures don't apply to them and we are regularly treated to the sight of these monster vehicles either having to reverse all the way up a steep narrow hairpin hill (once with a glider attached to the back!!) or get towed out of the quagmire at vast expense. Still, it keeps the local garages in work!

Sorry dumb question coming up........................... what are Bullbars????????

I hate 4x4's as they are gas guzzlers, can't be seen over, take up too much room, etc etc. I suppose they might be good if you live and work off-road in a very remote part of the country. Otherwise they are for showing off and are anti-social. Not that I've got a definite view or anything or strong feelings.

Bull bars are those extra bumper things on the front or rear of a car that look a bit like a cage, often shiny chrome. They are horribly danergous because if you are hit by a car that has them, the force of the impact is channeled into the area of contact with the bull bar, rather than more generally dissipated over the body. HTH.

Have you been to Caterpillar Music yet - there are 5 classes in Sutton - it's great fun!