And lo on Mon, 03 Sep 2007 10:11:23 +0100, St. <dot### [at] dotcom> did spake,  
saying:

>
> "scott" <sco### [at] laptopcom> wrote in message  
> news:46dbb643@news.povray.org...
>
>> BTW, why is it illegal there to park outside the marked bays?  There
>> doesn't seem to be any yellow lines, or does it say on the sign "parking
>> only in marked bays"?
>
>       I have no idea why it's illegal. All I know is that since the  
> police don't control parking regs any more, there's been a drive to get  
> as many
> people booked with an offence as much as possible. Seriously, you should  
> see the parking attendants in action around here, they all walk fast  
> looking for the next one.

Am I too late for the party? Looking at the photos you've posted I can see  
a Parking sign on the opposite side of the street and what could be the  
back of one on the other side. As for the blue car on the corner, it's  
inadvisable to park there, but not illegal; I also note the post without a  
sign, if there's no sign a case could be made by the owner for not knowing  
it was bay parking only on that side of the bay.

>> If it was me, I would write in the letter for a clarification of exactly
>> what the white line means.  Does your entire tyre foot-print have to be
>> inside the inner border of the line, or is it allowed to be on the line.
>> Or does it mean your entire car must be inside the line, overhangs and
>> all, and which side of the line counts... etc.  If they don't have a
>> detailed policy on this then how can they prosecute people in a fair  
>> way,
>> it's probably against some European human rights thingy that they have  
>> to
>> treat everyone fairly.. blah blah blah.

That's a case in point; strictly speaking the vehicle has to be within the  
lines - that's the whole vehicle. Most authorities go with the tire thing  
though. Of course then you have to define 'within' as the lines themselves  
have width ;-)

>      It's a new directive over here now. As I said, the police don't  
> control
> parking any more, the council employs people to do it. It's a self  
> financing
> thing too, so money has to be incoming. I just found this in one of our
> council's  PDF files:

Ah yes decriminalise it and make it a civil matter. In theory a good idea,  
instead of being a tag-on of the whole police budget it gains its own  
accounts; it also frees up a police officer with a wide range of powers  
who could be handling something else and replaces them with a parking  
enforcer with limited ones. Likewise as the local authority tend to be the  
ones who set the parking restrictions it makes sense they enforce them,  
keeps them in the same basket. Oh and of course it's self-financing.

Okay any council that proposes self-financing parking enforcement needs  
clubbing to death, burying, and a new (and hopefully smarter) council  
elected. The whole aim of parking enforcement is as a preventative  
punishment, the whole requirement of self-financing is that *it keeps  
happening*. Any successfull parking enforcement scheme that relies on  
fining brings in no money. Then what do you do fire the enforcers,until  
the situation gets bad again then bring them back?

Do that and any smart enforcer will soon realise that they should limit  
the number of tickets they hand out, keep the problem ticking over while  
keeping it a level below that it started with to show they are at least  
doing something. Try to nip that in the bud and set performance figures  
and you'll get them issuing fines over petty infringments that get  
overturned later by anyone fighting them.

Sounds like you've got the latter on your hands.

-- 
Phil Cook

--
I once tried to be apathetic, but I just couldn't be bothered
http://flipc.blogspot.com

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