[Closed] Parking enforcement camera car

Perhaps they are just data gathering and possibly going to send gentle reminders out first – I wouldn't want to be the person responsible for dealing with hundreds of vindictive 'yummy mummies' all upset at being fined for parking their Evoke on zebra crossings as they had no choice because poor little darling Aurelia had a heavy bag to carry.

The car is closely followed by a scooter where I live.

Presume the two are in radio contact (or maybe even done by computer).

It's pretty ludicrous though as the car's cameras and software are time-based, so minor transgressions (e.g. a few mins over in a bay) get tickets, but egregious acts (like parking on a zebra crossing) don't get ticketed unless they too hit the timed grace period of 5 minutes or whatever.

Not to mention the awful driving and parking of the enforcement car itself...

Well… it is school run so there is a brief window.

I don’t quite understand what Pickles’ big problem with councils keeping parking fines though, surely the answer if you don’t want to get fined is not to park somewhere you shouldn’t?

I’m not clear on how it works though. Google suggests they still need to send the warden round to ticket everyone thanks to Eric Pickles?

Presumably even without issuing fines, you can actually have a fairly significant impact if people just think there is a prospect of getting fined?

It’s pretty ludicrous though as the car’s cameras and software are time-based, so minor transgressions (e.g. a few mins over in a bay) get tickets, but egregious acts (like parking on a zebra crossing) don’t get ticketed unless they too hit the timed grace period of 5 minutes or whatever.

there's a logical failure in your argument. If the same time is applied in both cases, how come I get fined for being a few (=2?) mins over a bay but have to park for 5 to get fined on a zebra crossing?

Are the zebra crossing ones actually delegated out to councils to deal with? I might be wrong - but I thought councils only dealt with offences where there were no penalty points imposed?

I don’t quite understand what Pickles’ big problem with councils keeping parking fines though, surely the answer if you don’t want to get fined is not to park somewhere you shouldn’t?

I imagine its about appealing to voters who talk about "a war on motorists"...
I don't think there is much doubt that when councils see an opportunity to make money from this, some get a little carried away. There are practices like heavily incentivising wardens to issue tickets which see common sense go out the window and ambulances and busses get tickets. On the other hand I live in a council area where they haven't jumped on the bandwagon, the police got rid of traffic wardens ages ago (because they didn't get to keep the fines - so its a cost with little benefit to them!) and now parking is a free for all!

I’m not clear on how it works though. Google suggests they still need to send the warden round to ticket everyone thanks to Eric Pickles?

Well not in my case a few years ago.

Good - when my kids were at Primary there used to be loads of trouble. The local church let parent's use it's car parks, 1 minute walk from the school. Oh no, parent's still had to cram down a 1930's road which had no driveways. Chaos. Even ended up with one lazy parent threatening to knock out a taxi driver who was dropping off a child with special needs. We ended up with actual police on the road for a few weeks !

Oh and don't ever suggest to some yummy mummy that maybe they should park a bit further away, or use the provided car park, oh no, they possibly don't have enough time to do that. Don't ever suggest setting off earlier. This was on a local facebook page. Complained about the traffic, and when you suggest that driving down that road at the school, they were causing the problem.

Good – when my kids were at Primary there used to be loads of trouble. The local church let parent’s use it’s car parks, 1 minute walk from the school. Oh no, parent’s still had to cram down a 1930’s road which had no driveways. Chaos. Even ended up with one lazy parent threatening to knock out a taxi driver who was dropping off a child with special needs. We ended up with actual police on the road for a few weeks !

Yep - exactly the same out our old primary school - two parents had a proper punch-up outside school a few years ago. Pretty much every single school newsletter carried a piece about the inconsiderate parking. I don't miss it one bit.

there’s a logical failure in your argument. If the same time is applied in both cases, how come I get fined for being a few (=2?) mins over a bay but have to park for 5 to get fined on a zebra crossing?

I don't know what the grace period is...

timed grace period of 5 minutes or whatever.

The point is that it's the same arbitrary time applied to minor and major infringements. Could be two mins or could be five or could be 30 secs. An actual warden would be able to use judgement in a way that the software doesn't yet do.

I think the software footage has to be reviewed before a ticket is issued, and in this case it’s not being used for metered/P&D parking anyway, so grace periods don’t apply.

I don’t think there is much doubt that when councils see an opportunity to make money from this, some get a little carried away. There are practices like heavily incentivising wardens to issue tickets which see common sense go out the window and ambulances and busses get tickets.

There’s a happy medium, but surely no-one can have a big problem with fines being used to provide (desperately needed) funding to local services?

surely no-one can have a big problem with fines being used to provide (desperately needed) funding to local services?

Doing what's best and doing what makes the most money are not always aligned, and if the money accrued goes into your pocket then the temptation is to prioritise the latter over the former.

With limited resources, would you rather those resources be directed to enforce compliance with traffic regulations at accident blackspots and outside schools, or a foot past the sign where a 60mph zone drops to a 30?

if the money accrued goes into your pocket

it doesn't though, it goes to providing local services? Its not like councilers have share options in the council

it doesn’t though, it goes to providing local services?

It doesn't though does it ... In many councils councillors will put it out to tender and then the company they just happen to be a major shareholder in wins. The Nolan Principals are guidance not law.. there is no actual penalty for not declaring interests just a "you should have declared that" and taken yourself out of the committee"

We've just been through this last year on rubbish collection/council ABSO officers... the same company were closing off 75% of bins in the own centre then putting ABSO officers next to the remaining ones issuing fines when people tried to stuff the last bag etc. in and something fell out. [ultimately the closures and ABSO officers were filmed coordinating which is at least ironic)

This doesn't even cover the parking notices not being legal (as in legible) but issuing fines anyway with the pay now or double threat... to discourage people actually checking.

Our neighbouring borough has ACTUAL council employees doing parking and that is completely different to a company that has KPI's linked to income. The signs are still misleading (as to exactly what applies where) but the traffic wardens are at least helpful explaining them (it needs a map).

The result of our KPI driven ones is:
1) council pressing for income (residents permits) instead
2) deceptive and misleading signs
3) private wardens knock off at 5:30 after which lots of people park on double yellows (including police)

So see Danish safety thread....
Our local borough council blame CC for not providing places to store helmets... CC blame BC as they set the CIL ...

nearest school (but not ours) has insecure bike storage outside the school grounds (after thought) and unsurprisingly after all the bikes were stolen yet again cycle use is down.

When I worked in Denmark not only did you have a shower/helmet and secure bike storage but you could borrow helmets, reflectors and lights.

We can't even get the tiny bits for getting kids to ride to school...

nearest school (but not ours) has insecure bike storage outside the school grounds (after thought) and unsurprisingly after all the bikes were stolen yet again cycle use is down.

Only bike provision at my kids' school is a row of wheel-benders outside the main entrance, one module of which wasn't actually secured to the ground…