Now this doesn't happen every day. A pub land lord has banned all parking attendants from his 5 pubs in Torbay. Seems he got a parking ticket.
First a bit of background. In the Bay we used to have Traffic Wardens who almost never issued parking tickets. Sounds fine, park anywhere you like and no chance of a parking ticket. Well not exactly true. You had to get up early to find some where to park as most of the spaces were quickly taken up by local traders who liked to park out side their place of work all day, who wouldn't? Problem was when the shoppers got into town they just parked any where, bus stops, pavements, on bends, blocking roads. The traffic wardens spent most of their time wandering round smiling at people. The council, God Bless the Council, decided to bring in NCP to run parking inforcement. NCP 's Parking Attendants now issue lots and lots of tickets (some say too many, but not me) and now it is much easier to drive round town and to find parking places in the One Hours Parking Bays that before were full all day with the same cars parked for hours and hours. Illegally.
Anyway a Mr Thornton parked out side one of his pubs in Union Street. Under a sign which said "No Parking at Any Time." Now you can load and unload under such a sign but it would appear that our Parking Attendants are a cynical lot. They do like to see some loading or unloading going on. Other wise they get the idea that you aren't actually loading or unloading but are in fact Parking. And they issue a ticket. £60 but pay in 28 days and you get let of with £30.
Seems Mr Thornton was loading but got distracted and answered his phone. When you are talking on the phone you are not loading. So you must be Parking. Under a sign that says, "No Parking at Any Time."
An other point, if you click on the link below it will take you to the local News Paper. If you want, type in 'parking' in Search and hundreds of items, some dating back over a year will appear. All remark on how many tickets NCP have issued so far and complaints from some that they are too Draconian with their powers and praise from others for clearing the streets of illegally parked cars. Every body who lives in Torbay and drives a car must have heard of NCP or smoke pot 24/7. Mr Thornton must have known NCP are in town and he was parked in the centre of town. What exactly did he expect?
An other point, on the Herald Express' web page readers are invited to comment on news items. Some items get no comments, most get 2 or three, some time as many as four. Last time I looked there were 20 comments. Go there and make a comment. If you feel like it.
The Herald Express.
2 comments:
The notice stating that Parking Attendants are barred from Mr Thornton's 5 Torbay pubs has been removed. Maybe some one has pointed out that whilst it is not illegal to bar some one from your pub, that person can object to you holding a licence unless you can give a GOOD reason for barring them. Getting a Parking Ticket for illegally (alleged) parking probably isn't a good enough reason; especially as it is the councils who make such decisions.
I like the comments in that thread you link to. 20 comments, and all but one think the guy's an arse.
I do not get the fuss the Herald, and others, make about the NCP guys; they're doing their job, nothing more. We both know that certain streets were impossible before they came in, the double yellows on Warren Rd were ignored completely for years.
Ah well, the Herald thinks it's got a "popular campaign". I think otherwise. Nice to see most of the commenters think the same.
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