Whilst being issued with this morning's PCN the Parking Attendant informed me that he was not allowed to communicate with me. His bosses had told him and there was aletter coming out to me.
He requested that I refrain from taking his picture issuing the PCN because 'it was an infringement of his civil liberties.' Whilst there is no infringement of any liberties taking a picture of someone going about their activities as a public official in a public place I did respect his wishes.
However, I made the same request as I stood in front of the car before he photographed the alleged contravention.
He walked away after handing me the PCN ... NO PHOTOGRAPHS TAKEN!
Check mate.
Some of the bays have now been remarked at this location and the illegal motorcycle bay and kerb blips (conflicting provision) removed...BUT no amount of stretching is going to alter the fact that 85.8m of bays is going to be stretched to correspond with the 94m in the Traffic Order.
Friday, November 10, 2006
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Blog Archive
-
▼
2006
(392)
-
▼
November
(49)
- Another fine mess
- Chauffeur’s fury over £150 BP parking fine ... Civ...
- Fined driver takes on council and wins ... another...
- The fine mess continues ... now Redcar and Clevela...
- Now there are spy cameras at rubbish tips
- Sunderland Labour Group Letter that launched the n...
- BBC Reports Sunderland Labour Sleaze Row
- Opportunity for the Leader of Sunderland City Coun...
- Labour in fresh party funding row
- Sleazy Labour's £2m raid on council tax funds ... ...
- Same feet on traffic beat
- Chippy smells of chips complaint
- Off the streets
- Another fine mess .... more rubbish
- BBC Inside Out programme goes national
- NCP may lose some city parking duties
- Assembly on the move - but of its own accord
- Driver Gets Tickets as He Tries to Save His Dying ...
- Cost of Regional Assemblies risen from £5 million ...
- Daniel Mumford ... Victory against Southampton Cou...
- Shadow Tyneside Minister confirms that regional as...
- Parking protest suffers setback ... or has NPAS wa...
- Have your say on political funding
- Councillor faces party rap for snubbing campaign levy
- Blackpool FOI response
- Westminster Council ... Local Government Ombudsman...
- Workplace parking charges scheme may set precedent...
- Coronation Street saga continues
- Robin de Crittenden Skeleton Argument submitted to...
- Doctor makes a stand against parking fines
- The Parking Alternatives ...
- Mexican Stand Off in Sunderland
- Sunderland Council's NCP Parking Attendants' silence
- Dacorum Council put on notice...another parking fi...
- And another (Dacorum Borough Council) one's gone ....
- Dacorum decision ... another council bites the roa...
- Parking in Southampton ... what a shambles!
- Parking Attendant's Blog
- And another one's gone (Tendring District Council)
- Another One (Ealing Council) Bites the Dust ...
- The Letters Page (Sunderland Echo)
- Sunderland Council Press Statement ... Imperial Me...
- Tories fail to clamp transport leader
- Who has parked their yard on my car?
- Joe keeps parking job
- Thanks
- Another fine mess for parking bosses
- North East Regional Assembly ... the real con
- Carmarthen Journal
-
▼
November
(49)
11 comments:
"He requested that I refrain from taking his picture issuing the PCN because 'it was an infringement of his civil liberties"
That's buggered the ID card scheme then!
How many CCTV cameras cover that location.
A PA uniform is no guarantee that the wearer is who he says he is. In the absence of a passport or official ID supported by secondary proof of identification, then they should be asked to produce a copy of their bank statement and or a Bill (invoice) sent to their place of abode.
Its only fair that they comply with the minimum governmental requirements in establishing ones identity
All very interesting stuff Neil, but what's the alternative?
People parking wherever the hell they like?
Roads, alleys and thoroughfares obstructed?
Emergency services unable to serve because the road to a fire or and RTA (probably caused by unfettered 'I don't give a damn 'cos I'm English and therefore right!!' parking) has been blocked by some oaf in a Chelsea Tractor?
Can I suggest you take a look at the alley leading from the Ivy House to Stockton Road, particularly the junction between Alice street and Worcester Terrace alleys) on a typical weekday.
Why?
Because that's what the whole town is likely to resemble if there are no parking controls.
I'd love to see your altenative plan on here, but I'm not holding my breath.
There's an old phrase that's never more clearly illustrated than by this almost pathological obsession with parking rules, and it goes 'If you're not part of the solution - '
Well, I'm sure you know the rest.
comments hiding behind anonymous above, hmmmmm.
Can you point to anywhere Neil has advocated obstructing the emergency services or the attitude you suggest?
You clearly have no grasp of the issues involved, this is about the Council(s) of the UK acting in a lawful manner, which is their duty and our right to expect, rather than them using any old excuse to extort money from parking from all and sundry in a lawless and unchecked fashion.
I'm not hiding behind anything mate! I just don't feel the need to sign up to a website to be able to chip in my twopennorth! To steal a bit of a line from Mr H, democracy may well not be a spectator sport, but it doesn't oblige me to join any websites either! (Or does freedom of opinion only count when it agrees with the boss? Shades of New Labour - style debate-stifling there I think...)
If you'd understood (as opposed to just having read) my post, you'd notice that nowhere did I even suggest that Neil was advocating obstructive parking, but the simple truth is that without any restrictions that is exactly what would happen! Like I said - go have a look in the unrestricted alleyways and around the streets, where selfish idiots regularly park right on junctions, sometimes across street corners, and you'll see exactly what I meant.
Also, I reckon I've a pretty good grasp on the issues at hand here (long time reader, one time supporter, now disillusioned with the ongoing apparent waste of an obviously very sharp mind...). To say that parking rules are lawless and unchecked flies in the face of checks, balances, appeals and the efforts of campaigners in highlighting errors and ommissions thus far. To suggest the rules are intended simply a cash cow is as naive as suggesting that this whole campaign is purely in the interests of the poor benighted motorist!!
As I also mentioned, I would love to see an alternative plan provided by Neil or any one of his co-campaigners - it's all too easy to sit by the sidelines and snipe, but where's the alternative they're offering? To date there doesn't seem to be one.
One last thing I find particularly interesting here is your choice of screen name: 'Beat The Flash!'? Now I'm guessing the name wasn't prompted by a massive aversion to brand-name detergents, low-light photography or Flash Gordon movies? Don't like speed cameras, eh? Well - the easiest way to beat them is to DRIVE WITHIN THE SPEED LIMITS!! Whatever the ins and outs of the cameras (and no - I don't like them either) another simple, though unpopular, fact is that this country has legally enforceable speed limits - can I assume from your name that in your world it's only Councils that have to obey the laws of the land?
Anonymous @8.59 asks: "People parking wherever the hell they like? Roads, alleys and thoroughfares obstructed?"
No.
Anonymous @8.59 asks another question: "but what's the alternative?"
The alternative is that local authorities should a) observe the law. After all they expect every member of the public to do so.
b) use parking fines as a means to control parking rather than as a means to raise revenue.
The local authorities should treat the public funds in their care as if it belonged to someone else, not as if it were some cash they just happen to have found lying in the street.
They have power, lets see some responsibility. Then I might conceed they have legitimate authority.
Further to Anonymous @ 9:46's post: all fair comments, but they still raise a question or two...
"The alternative is that local authorities should a) observe the law." Okay - which law do you want them to observe? It strikes me that one of the bedrocks of the whole parking campaign so far has been to render decriminalised parking enforcement unlawful - the Bill of Rights defence etc? Now if this approach (and/or any of the other legalistic twists, turns and technicalities that are being attempted), then we're back to a position where there's a parking free-for-all - unless someone comes up with an alternative. And I still don't hear any bright ideas from this camp.
"After all they expect every member of the public to do so." Well this may be a bit pedantic, but in this blog I think I'm in good company, so - if authorities honestly expected everybody to obey the law, why would they need an ENFORCEMENT regime?
"b) use parking fines as a means to control parking rather than as a means to raise revenue." (slaps forehead) This is as much a question of perception as anything: anything that costs a motorist - even a motorist who breaks clearly pragmatic rules and regulations - is immediately seized on as a 'blatant money grabbing exercise'. And so what if it raises a few quid? Council funding has to come from somewhere doesn't it? Would you rather they ran a system unprofitably, meaning that Council Tax Payers had to shell out again to make sure that the rule breakers and the inconsiderate were bought to book?
"The local authorities should treat the public funds in their care as if it belonged to someone else, not as if it were some cash they just happen to have found lying in the street." Pretty much what I said above...
"They have power, lets see some responsibility. Then I might conceed they have legitimate authority." Now this one swings both ways - if we can look beyond the 'that's not fair, what about MY rights' mentality that seems to prevails these days, where's the responsibility in carrying on a crusade against something that is designed for the public good? Where's the responsibility in actively trampling the spirit of a law because you've found a flaw in the letter of it? If someone discovered a technicality that made paying old age pensions illegal, would you expect anyone to go after it with the same determination? (an extreme example perhaps, but the point about 'intended public good' is essentially the same)
Somehow I doubt it...
This country faces much bigger problems than people being fined for parking where they shouldn't - bigger even than one man selling a pound of bananas!! I just happen to think that Neil's talents, tenacity and obvious support could be better employed shooting at elephants rather than swatting the flies that live on them.
quote-I just happen to think that Neil's talents, tenacity and obvious support could be better employed shooting at elephants rather than swatting the flies that live on them.
Indeed, however the old addage 'To win the war you must 1st win the battles' applies, does it not.
As for swatting the elephant there was a website called 'dadsplace' tried that, unfortunately the elephant stamped on those doing the elephant swatting.
You just don't get it at all, do you?
Dadsplace wouldn't have recognised an elephant if it sat on Dad's foot!! It was another flyswatter, no more, no less.
Councils are flies on the elephant of central government - Labour councils are the flies that buzz around the elephant's arse. The head elephant lives in Downing Street, the rest of the rotten herd are set up in grace-and-favour accommodation paid for by you & me while they subject our country to the death of a thousand cuts.
You're absolutely right about winning wars by winning battles, but the best generals know to pick their battles wisely. Fighting the same battle over & over again - without decisive progress - achieves very little for a lot of effort.
If Neil and Co got themselves partnered with this lot (http://our-say.org/ - and before you ask, I have no links with these people, I just read a lot) well, THAT might achieve something we can all benefit from!!
"Okay - which law do you want them to observe?"
Very good, and that is one of the things, I hope Neil's campaign will end up establishing.
"Now if this approach [snip irrevelant stuff] {succeeds} then we're back to a position where there's a parking free-for-all ..
No.
"unless someone comes up with an alternative"
simply repeal dcp legislation and revert to the situation before dcp, with the police doing the job.
"And I still don't hear any bright ideas from this camp."
why are you expecting him to legislate a solution to a problem that he did not introduce. But it is his duty, an mine come to that, to make sure the law of the United Kingdom is observed and draw attention to instances where is is being flouted.
Even if that is not the primary purpose of Neil Herrons campaign, I support him so far as our aims coincide.
"(slaps forehead)"
Carry on...
"This is as much a question of perception as anything:... "
No it is not.
"anything that costs a motorist - even a motorist who breaks clearly pragmatic rules and regulations"
Are the "pragmatic" rules and regulations legal, that is the question. Elsewise we are just dealing with a mob, actually the mob. They demand money with threats, they are not even trammeled by the law.
"is immediately seized on as a 'blatant money grabbing exercise'.
Illegally demanding money with menaces is, well, illegal! If the demands of the local authorities have no legal standing, they are nothing but crooks. You may wish to condone that behaviour, but I don't.
"And so what if it raises a few quid?"
Across the UK, how much money do you think the dcp regieme has generated over the years? When you find out, post the total sum here, then be kind enough to tell us would you still characterize that sum as just 'a few quid'?
Now add to that the fact that it may well be illegally extorted funds, and what you end up with is nothing less than a massive fraud.
"where's the responsibility in carrying on a crusade against something that is designed for the public good?"
Every citizen is obligated to report wrongdoing if he/she is aware of it. We could actually do with more people like Neil doing the same sort of thing tha Neil is doing.
"Where's the responsibility in actively trampling the spirit of a law because you've found a flaw in the letter of it?"
Except you have put the cart before the horse here. The law is clear, in many respects the local authorities have implemented the law in a laxadisiacial and negligent fashion. Interpreting the law incorrectly, not bothering to check the requirements of the law before rushing to importune and blackmail otherwise law abiding citizens, that is irresponsible, that behaviour should be punished.
"I just happen to think that Neil's talents, tenacity ..."
Well old chum, that is really not a matter for you or me, but Mr Herron.
I can not accept posts from anonymous persons making allegations against named individuals.
Anyone with information with regard to any unlawful activity in relation to Sunderland's Parking Enforcement regime can e-mail me in the strictest confidence on neil.herron@btconnect.com
Post a Comment