Anyone who drives a car in Lambeth is a target for unfair ticketing.
The council have put financial incentives in their parking contract
which means that traffic wardens have to hand out 12 tickets for EVERY
12 hour shift.

Find out more he http://www.lambethlabour.com/parking/

Anyone else experienced unfair ticketing?

Charlie wrote:
Anyone who drives a car in Lambeth is a target for unfair ticketing.
The council have put financial incentives in their parking contract
which means that traffic wardens have to hand out 12 tickets for EVERY
12 hour shift.

Find out more he http://www.lambethlabour.com/parking/

Anyone else experienced unfair ticketing?

Just what is so unfair about this, then?

I live in Fulham, and would suggest that any traffic warden unable to
issue 12 tickets per hour - let alone 12 per shift (Wandsworth Bridge
Road area) is either asleep or colluding with the shops and illegal
parkers who make everyone else's life a misery.

Marc.

Charlie wrote:
Anyone who drives a car in Lambeth is a target for unfair ticketing.
The council have put financial incentives in their parking contract
which means that traffic wardens have to hand out 12 tickets for EVERY
12 hour shift.

Find out more he http://www.lambethlabour.com/parking/

Anyone else experienced unfair ticketing?


The website doesn't really define "Unfair ticketing".

If someone parks illegally, then they should rightly be ticketed. The
simple way to stop "over-zealous" (funny that that term only applies to
people like traffic wardens, ticket inspectors etc) ticketers is to not
park illegally. 12 tickets per shift isn't that much. The way the
Evening Standard goes on about it, I was under the impression that
individual wardens were issuing that many an hour...

Sorry to sound unsympathetic, (and I'm not a traffic warden btw) but I
am tired of people thinking that parking laws are just suggestions and
are there to be flouted. That said, the idea of private companies
skimming a profit of parking tickets etc. leaves a nasty taste in the
mouth.

I think you've missed the point.

The contract in Lambeth which stipulates Control Plus have to hand out
200,000 tickets a year, otherwise their profits are significantly
reduced. This works out at 12 tickets every 8 hour shift (My mistake
for putting 12 hour shift in the first post).

The problem is there is nowhere near 200,000 people parking illegally
in Lambeth a year. In the year prior to that contract being signed,
only 120,000 tickets were handed out.

So how do they make up the difference? They ticket people who AREN'T
parking illegally. I am not exagerating here. A guy whose scooter had
been crushed was ticketed whilst he was being put in the back of an
ambulance after an accident. Another bloke was given a ticket when his
legally parked car was rammed onto the pavement. you can't make this
stuff up, it's all been reported in the local newspapers. For every
extreme example their are thousands of others.

I couldn't agree with you more that people parked illegally should be
ticketed. But I'm afraid this contract is forcing wardens to ticket
people who are parked illegally.

"Charlie" wrote in message
oups.com...

I think you've missed the point.

The contract in Lambeth which stipulates Control Plus have to hand out
200,000 tickets a year, otherwise their profits are significantly
reduced. This works out at 12 tickets every 8 hour shift (My mistake
for putting 12 hour shift in the first post).

The problem is there is nowhere near 200,000 people parking illegally
in Lambeth a year. In the year prior to that contract being signed,
only 120,000 tickets were handed out.

Just because only 120k tickets were issued last year does not mean that is
the total number of cars parked illegally. There would be many more who did
not get caught because there didn't happen to be a traffic warden around at
the time. So if the new company are more efficient than the old one and
catch more vehicles it is perfectly possible to issue 200k tickets without
having to ticket random cars.

So how do they make up the difference? They ticket people who AREN'T
parking illegally. I am not exagerating here. A guy whose scooter had
been crushed was ticketed whilst he was being put in the back of an
ambulance after an accident. Another bloke was given a ticket when his
legally parked car was rammed onto the pavement. you can't make this
stuff up, it's all been reported in the local newspapers. For every
extreme example their are thousands of others.

How is a traffic warden supposed to know that the driver of a scooter has
been taken to hospital. Are they psychic? Should they ring round every
hospital before they issue a ticket just in case?

I couldn't agree with you more that people parked illegally should be
ticketed. But I'm afraid this contract is forcing wardens to ticket
people who are parked illegally.

In other words you have been given a couple of tickets and are now whinging
because you used to be able to park wherever you liked.

Peter Smyth

"Peter Smyth" wrote in message
...

"Charlie" wrote in message
oups.com...

I think you've missed the point.

The contract in Lambeth which stipulates Control Plus have to hand out
200,000 tickets a year, otherwise their profits are significantly
reduced. This works out at 12 tickets every 8 hour shift (My mistake
for putting 12 hour shift in the first post).

The problem is there is nowhere near 200,000 people parking illegally
in Lambeth a year. In the year prior to that contract being signed,
only 120,000 tickets were handed out.

Just because only 120k tickets were issued last year does not mean that is
the total number of cars parked illegally. There would be many more who
did not get caught because there didn't happen to be a traffic warden
around at the time. So if the new company are more efficient than the old
one and catch more vehicles it is perfectly possible to issue 200k tickets
without having to ticket random cars.

I agree. All it takes is late evening and sunday working. In all of the
places that I have lived in an around London it is normal to find double
yellows treated like they are there at these times of the week. I could
ticket 50 cars in as long as it takes to write them on a Sunday.

And as a resident of these localities who goes out of his way to
park legally, it really pees me off that these people aren't ticketed.

tim

The Lib Dems on Lambeth Council have tried that one too! Unfortunately
the rate of appeals against tickets (as a percentage of tickets issued)
went through the roof in Lambeth as soon as the new contract was
signed. This is a clear sign that it as the number of tickets went up,
the quality of the tickets nose-dived.

Your argument (and the practice of setting an arbitrary target) also
ignores the possibility of deterrent. Any logical system would expect
better enforcement to result in a decreasing number of parking
violations, as people realise they won't get away with it. The 200,
000 figure is set in stone for 4 years!

It's hard to believe I know, but the traffic warden didn't turn up
after the guy had been taken away, he gave the given AT THE SAME TIME
as the guy was being put in the ambulance. People were remonstrating
with him as he did it. That's how the papers found out. This ticket
actually won the 2004 "worst ticket in the world" on the appealnow.com
website.

As for your comment about me whinging because I got a ticket...sorry
mate...I don't even own a car! Good parking enforcment keeps the roads
clear and safe, a bad parking enforcement system (like the one in
Lambeth) undermines the whole system. You can have a very effective
system, as they do in many other local authorities, which doesn't have
financial incentives in the contract. I think you having trouble
seeing the wood for the trees!

The contract in Lambeth which stipulates Control Plus
have to hand out 200,000 tickets a year, otherwise
their profits are significantly reduced.

Most of these contracts, and certainly the incentives for
the individual parking attendents, specify a certain
number of *valid* tickets must be issued in a set period
of time. This eliminates the incentive to issue incorrect
tickets to fill a quota.

Of course, people who think they have been incorrectly
issued with a penalty notice can always appeal - by
paying you agree that you were parked illegally in
return for the council taking no further action against
you.


Matt Ashby

On 29 Jun 2005 16:30:36 -0700, "Matt Ashby"
wrote:

Of course, people who think they have been incorrectly
issued with a penalty notice can always appeal - by
paying you agree that you were parked illegally in
return for the council taking no further action against
you.

The latter, of course, is fine in theory, but not if someone's car has
been towed away in the process. They invariably then have no choice
but to pay to get the vehicle back, as the "storage" charges rack up
by the day.
--
Nick Cooper

[Carefully remove the detonators from my e-mail address to reply!]

The London Underground at War:
http://www.cwgcuser.org.uk/personal/...ra/lu/tuaw.htm
625-Online - classic British television:
http://www.625.org.uk
'Things to Come' - An Incomplete Classic:
http://www.thingstocome.org.uk

Charlie wrote to uk.transport.london on Wed, 29 Jun 2005:


Anyone who drives a car in Lambeth is a target for unfair ticketing.
The council have put financial incentives in their parking contract
which means that traffic wardens have to hand out 12 tickets for EVERY
12 hour shift.

Find out more he http://www.lambethlabour.com/parking/

Anyone else experienced unfair ticketing?

In Lambeth? Definitely! Too often to go into detail.... but unless you
have access to off-road parking, there's not much point in owning a car
in Lambeth!
--
"Mrs Redboots"
http://www.amsmyth.demon.co.uk/
Website updated 23 May 2005