I AM one of ze latest victims of Blackpool council’s militant parking stasi.
According to ze eye witnesses, Civil Enforcement Officer BP einhundertfünfundvierzig stealthily crept around mein Auto covertly taking many Fotos before affixing ze dreaded yellow and black packet to my windscreen. Achtung! £70 fine!
I am positive that the councillor responsible for the parking stasi, Erich Mielke, will be over the moon at the success of his loyal troops.
At least I wasn't the only one
Yes, I was parked on a single yellow line within restricted hours, and yes I will have to pay my £70 fine.
I was, however, on a residential road which is restricted between 10am and 4pm to prevent staff from the former Inland Revenue HQ at Mexford House lining the streets with their cars. I say former because it has been empty for years, yet as ever the parking restrictions are a lasting legacy.
Does it make sense to restrict residential roads when the very reason for the restriction is defunct? Not really, but I am still an idiot for parking there.
Lesson learned!
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I know this is off topic but I just the need to have a rant; I wrote a comment this morning criticising Marsden and surprise surprise ‘REMOVED BY ADMINISTRATOR’, why is the Gasjet siding with the Liebour Party? They are a local paper and should not be taking political stances. Yet they censor any criticism of Labour. They won’t even let you write Liebour as it is an ‘offensive word’. Pathetic.
Anyhow I sympathise with your situation Phil, there are many areas with needless parking restrictions like this. My favourite example being Pershore Road in St Annes outside Clifton Hospital. I sometimes work down there and once parked my car on the empty residential road as I don’t have a parking permit. I was met by a resident who strut over and gave me a lecture telling me I have to get a permit because I can’t park on ‘HIS’ street. I felt like saying “You don’t own the street matey it is public highway”, and he was putting cones outside his house (also illegal). Of the roughly 10 bungalows on the tiny street only this one moaner has a car (and a driveway) but yet he was campaigning to FBC demanding parking restrictions. This was a clear case of snobbery as there was no logical need for restrictions at all, I am saddened FBC gave him what he wanted.
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Ah – I think his name is Graham Hunt? He also campaigned (and got) restrictions put on Rosebery Avenue – which is the other side of the hospital to Pershore Road and which didn’t actually get any hospital parking on it because it is the other side of the protected dunes. He does newsletters to the area updating them on how to call out wardens, blah, blah, blah. I don’t understand his problem with it. OK to complain about bits of it being a nuisance but the yellow lines painted were ridiculously out of proportion. It’s a right nuisance when you have to visit people living there because now you can no longer park outside their houses – it’s up the drive or round the corner and walk which is fine if it’s not raining and not if it’s not.
If you want to park for free now it’s not that easy without going into places that are far more effected by hospital parking or a bit of a walk. Until a few years ago when they jigged around the services and charged people to park there weren’t any problems at all. Top of King Edward Avenue and walk (a 5 min job though) or go up Rosebery Avenue and turn right onto Finsbury and walk across the dunes are probably the best.
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That’s the guy, having actually been confronted by him I can tell you he is a total ponce. He is the sort guy who just takes the ‘you can’t park on my street’ attitude. He struts around like Victor Meldrew acting like he owns the neighbourhood lecturing people and thinking he can tell them what to do, I am surprised he hasn’t had a whack off someone to be honest the way he carries on. But like I said nobody on Pershore Road (except 2 houses with driveways) even has a car, there is no need for parking restrictions at all. I sent a complaint to FBC but to no avail.
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I saw that TB,the Gazette is a joke and Marsden is a useless CUNT.
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I wrote to the Gasjet about this the other day and low and behold, not a word. If this censorship carries on I may just send the same email to their superiors at JP. They have got no right to censor comments just because I am criticising Labour, what ever happened to free speech?
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Thats why I call it the Gaggedzette;toilet paper that is,toilet journalism at its best!
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Unless you’re not that bothered by it, have you checked to see if the penalty is legitimate? There are still a number of streets in the borough with unenforcable restrictions, because they have been implemented incorrectly.
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Dont’ know how true it is (and it sounds pretty doubtfull !). But I have been told that the councils parking attendants can’t issue tickets for parking on double yellows unless it is within a controlled parking zone – areas marked with signs at the entrances such as most of the town centre.
Apparantly only ‘traffic wardens’ employed by the police and the police themselves can issue outside these areas, the councils ticketers are not legally ‘wardens’ just ‘civilians’ if that makes sense.
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I’ve heard similar, in fact someone at work used to do that in Preston because he knew he would never get done and couldn’t be done by the stasi!
They don’t call ‘em Civil Enforcement Officers for nothin’ !
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They can in Blackpool because the highway parking was decriminalised. In areas without decriminalisation, where Traffic Wardens are still employed then the above scenario applies. However, the “Civil Enforcement Officers cannot issue a ticket for a vehicle parked on pavement, or causing an obstruction etc…. unless it was also committing a parking offence! This is still a a matter left for the police to enforce.
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