As we all know Nanny's rules and regulations are very expensive for her to implement, monitor and enforce. As such, she has to make ever increasing demands on her subjects (us) by way of increased taxes.Unfortunately, even the current tax take is not enough to satisfy Nanny's insatiable demand for cash. Therefore she has to resort to illegal and underhand means to find new sources of revenue.
Nasser Khan was on the receiving end of one of Nanny's scams the other day. He had parked his car on a space between some yellow lines, on Chapel Street Salford, and was shocked shocked when he returned to his car to find that he had a parking ticket.
Given that he had parked on a gap between the yellow (no parking) lines, how could this be possible?
Easy!
Nanny had the lines pained UNDERNEATH his car whilst he was away.
You see how easy it is folks?
All Nanny has to do is to change the rules, to fit her needs, as she goes along.
No wonder the people of Britain have utter contempt for the government and local councils.
Once the lackeys of Nanny's local council had painted the yellow lines underneath Mr Khan's car, Nanny's tax collector on legs (a traffic warden) gave him a ticket.
Mr Khan said:
"It was just a feeling of disbelief and amazement.
I thought it was a joke.
I am going to write a letter and tell them what I think."
Mr Khan also noted that the machinery used to mark the line had melted part of his tyres, costing him £550 for a new set and over £40 on a taxi to and from his home in Rochdale to work the next day.
A council lackey said:
"It looks like contractors acting for United Utilities
have been creative in completing this job as promptly as they could.
The driver concerned needs to write to us explaining the circumstances,
and we will look into it.
Clearly, if the account is accurate,
then we could not be legally able to enforce this ticket."
Can you hear the tone in this lackey's voice?
They are not sorry that the lines were painted, and a ticket falsely issued, but they are sorry that they can't "legally" enforce the fine!
That speaks volumes about their attitude towards us and the law.
Tell me, does anyone trust or respect local councils anymore?
I don't!
Whilst it is very likely that Mr Khan realised that where he parked was subject to parking restriction marking being applied but incomplete he quite reasonably made use of the incomplete markings to park his car legally.
ReplyDeleteIf the council wishes to mark roads for new restictions then they should take steps to do so properly and in a timely fashion. The previous incomplete markings could, presumably, have been dealt with by monitoring the location for absence of parked vehicles or by deploying some cones until the painters could get there. The latter may be the most cost effective method.
To do what the sub-contractors did is not 'creative', especially if they caused damage as claimed - which seems very likely given the type of equipment required to make the marking last more than a few months. The photos I saw would mean that the lines would still have gaps where the tyres touched the road and would therefore still be illegal as far as I ynderstand it.
For 'creative' read 'vandalism' of a sort that would not be acceptable to the council if it was their property involved.
It seems to me that many, perhaps all, local councils set up rules and processes of dubious value which 'the public' are expected to follow but the council and its contractors can ignore when it suits them. But I guess that just describes 'normal' political practice and the only result of a complaint would probably be a job for a lackey for a year and a 300 page report.
Baaaa!
Baaa? Who said that! Own up at ONCE! Nobody leaves this room until the culprit admits to his evildoing!
ReplyDeletesky_dog said...
ReplyDelete"It was Grant Big Al!"
Grass!
"Please remit £10,000 in used notes to cover costs for this in depth investigation to the usual address in an unmarked brown paper bag please. "
Cheapskate - should be much more costly than that. How is a public servant to make a decent scam out of such trivial amounts? I'll have to sell the story to the media now to make up the balance to "the usual".
Grant, they did indeed leave two gaps where the tyres had been.
ReplyDeleteYou're correct in saying the motorist concerned realised there was a parking restriction - he has practically admitted that he was being cheeky in making use of the gap, but he wasn't the first to do so.
However, local authorities are quick to use the "technically correct" card whenever they are called to account for some of the stupidity reported on this site, so when someone gets one back I say well done.
The whole incident was filmed by a local office worker - pictures on the Manchester Evening News site.
Anon said:
ReplyDelete"Grant, they did indeed leave two gaps where the tyres had been. "
Which I believe, technically, makes the parking restriction unenforcable which firther implies that the council's contractors, if they damaged the car in any way, could surely be taken to court for criminal damage.
I remember seeing the photos in the papers.
There was a similar situation about a year ago near where I live. An access road to 2 supermarkets and a bottle bank area was at one point wide enough to handle 3 or 4 parked cars without obstructing traffic flows. Whilst both supermarkets have their own car parks they are for their customaers only. Since one of them is very large (car park never full) and was built partly on what had been one of the largest of the few municipal car parks in the town centre it seemed reasonable that any town centre workers should be able to use this small strip of road to park, but the council had other ideas.
They managed to paint a few odd strips of the road between the parked cars leaving about 3 odd gaps the first time I noticed it. A few weeks later that was down to 1 1/2 gaps and shortly after that they must have had a pre-dawn raid and filled in the rest before anyone parked for the day.
I must take the time to check one day and see if the markings are legally correct and all signs in place. Or not. Not sure I will bother as it does not worry me one way or the other.
That must be a unique event, United Utilities doing something with despatch. When I have seen them, few if any are actually working and most of the day seems to be spent shopping. It must have been a set up to catch someone parking.
ReplyDelete