Smartie...

[eno]

Traffic wardens are a branch of the police and the tickets they issue are covered by slightly  different regulations  and they are also responsible for other traffic related issues. If you wish to challenge a parking ticket from a Traffic Warden it goes through the courts. Traffic Wardens do not clamp  cars.

What you tend to see in most citys are Parking attendents who are responsible for issuing parking tickets only, they have no other role. Parking Attendants are employed by private companies on behalf of Local Councils and unless properly regulated and scrutinised can be a bit over zealous. You don't go to court to challenge their tickets you go to the local parking officer in the council. Parking attendants can authorise clamping and removal. IMO clamping is pointless as it doesn't remove the obstruction.

Scottish law prevents clamping ..... it is officially called Demanding Monies with Menaces after several people sucessfully challenged the law at it's inception in 1992.

As for the peeps that are saying he should have known he was illegally parked it's not always that clear. The parking regulations are extremely complex and unless you have some knowledge of them they are difficult to challenge, these private companies rely on the fact that people wont challenge because of the complexity. Everything from the road markings and signage, to the way the ticket is actually written is regulated and with a small amount of knowledge 20-30% of tickets can be successfully challenged.

[Hagar]

Parking Attendants are employed by private companies on behalf of Local Councils and unless properly regulated and scrutinised can be a bit over zealous. You don't go to court to challenge their tickets you go to the local parking officer in the council. Parking attendants can authorise clamping and removal. IMO clamping is pointless as it doesn't remove the obstruction.

Scottish law prevents clamping ..... it is officially called Demanding Monies with Menaces after several people sucessfully challenged the law at it's inception in 1992.

Thanks Eno. I'm not against the idea of anything that can help the police enforce the law but as with most of these things it's patently obvious that these people are not properly regulated. This leaves the system open to abuse which is far more common than some people seem to think. The whole idea is flawed anyway. As you point out, wheel clamping does not remove a parked vehicle which can often be causing a serious obstruction to the traffic flow. As the original topic concerns Worcester which was in England the last time I checked I don't know how Scottish law comes into this.

Everything from the road markings and signage, to the way the ticket is actually written is regulated and with a small amount of knowledge 20-30% of tickets can be successfully challenged.

It's not unusual for the councils in some towns to deliberately make the road markings or warning signs obscure or misleading. In some cases it's been proved with overwhelming evidence that these weren't even there at the time of the so-called offence. The council has strenuously denied it until taken to court over it. This can be expensive & time-consuming so most people will accept it & pay up. I've heard it reported more than once that new road markings were painted after the offending cars were were parked there. Needless to say the local traffic warden or, even worse, these private "Parking Attendants" were waiting their opportunity & had a field day.

[Saitek]

Traffic wardens are a branch of the police and the tickets they issue are covered by slightly  different regulations  and they are also responsible for other traffic related issues. If you wish to challenge a parking ticket from a Traffic Warden it goes through the courts. Traffic Wardens do not clamp  cars.

Thought so.


I think the confusion must be in the "picture". That ISN'T the car in topic, I know the BBC use pictures like that just for the sake of it.
He probably was given a ticket like most people (they get stuck with extra sticky glue so it leaves awful marks on the windows and even when the sticker is taken off people can still tell!!) and probably never had his wheel clamped.

I think we are both right Doug... but what I didn't realise was that both exist and both are seperate entities in their own right.

[Hagar]

I think we are both right Doug... but what I didn't realise was that both exist and both are seperate entities in their own right.

You could be right but if this is the case why would the BBC post a photo of a wheel clamp to accompany that article? I find this very confusing as the article itself doesn't go into details of the alleged offense.

We both know that some (not all) laws in Scotland can be very different to those in other parts of the UK. I can only suppose that the traffic wardens in Scotland are also very different to most of their ilk in the rest of the UK. While I agree that they could be very useful if properly trained & regulated, most traffic wardens I've met are 'little Hitlers' only interested in issuing as many tickets as they can & in serious need of a sense of humour transplant. There is always the exception to the rule but in so many cases the decent traffic wardens that try to do their job properly are either sacked or reprimanded for not issuing their quota of tickets. There have been many instances of this reported in the news over the last year alone. Also allegations of them exceeding their authority & acting much like those private wheel clampers. Most of the people I know lost any respect for them long ago.

He probably was given a ticket like most people (they get stuck with extra sticky glue so it leaves awful marks on the windows and even when the sticker is taken off people can still tell!!)

I've had several tickets over the years & never had this problem. One was for parking on the grass verge outside my old home without lights while visiting my seriously ill mother, even though the road was lit better than daylight & I'd parked overnight without lights in exactly the same spot for many years while I lived there. Despite protesting bitterly I had to pay up as this was an unpublicised interpretation of the traffic laws by the new chief of police. The notice announcing this was stuck on an inside wall of the local police station so nobody would know about it unless they'd been in there.

PS. As for those Parking Attendants that operate in Brighton & from what I read while researching this subject will soon be introduced to other parts of the country, these are the sort of people you're dealing with so be warned. [quote]In England and Wales, since 3 May 2005 anyone working as a Vehicle Immobiliser on private land must have a licence from the Security Industry Authority (SIA). An SIA licence is meant to show that

[Saitek]

Well as for the sticky glue maybe it is a Scottish thing! Lol - makes me laugh. Must take ages to clean off!