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Council tip - parking enforcement
I was at a party last Saturday, and I was trapped in a corner by a very well juiced council officer. The more drinks the guy had the more he was spilling the beans about his council’s parking activities. He told me that his council contracts out its parking and enforcement matters to a private contractor.
The contractor guarantees to the council that it will collect a minimum number of parking fines, and if it fails to live up to that promise, it will be subject to financial penalties. The private contractor has an incentive to issue as many fines as it can, so the poor old motorist is well shafted. I know you are not the caped crusader, and you probably have no wish to be, but are you not sickened by the blatant corruption going on in local councils?
Why should I get favours from the local council on parking offences, just because I know an official that works for the local council, and an ordinary Joe Soap gets the book thrown at him. Also the fact that council officers can abrogate parking fines for their own cars is quite disgraceful.
We love taking the mickey out of foreigners, and so-called banana republics, but we have just as much corruption going on in Britain as they do abroad. Can’t you mention this in your column? It’s out of hand and councils have to be brought to book.
The contractor guarantees to the council that it will collect a minimum number of parking fines, and if it fails to live up to that promise, it will be subject to financial penalties. The private contractor has an incentive to issue as many fines as it can, so the poor old motorist is well shafted. I know you are not the caped crusader, and you probably have no wish to be, but are you not sickened by the blatant corruption going on in local councils?
Why should I get favours from the local council on parking offences, just because I know an official that works for the local council, and an ordinary Joe Soap gets the book thrown at him. Also the fact that council officers can abrogate parking fines for their own cars is quite disgraceful.
We love taking the mickey out of foreigners, and so-called banana republics, but we have just as much corruption going on in Britain as they do abroad. Can’t you mention this in your column? It’s out of hand and councils have to be brought to book.
Asked on 14 March 2010 by LD, Weybridge
Answered by
Honest John
Weybridge, eh? That’s the constituency of Secretary of State for Transport Philip Hammond, and where 26,304 residents signed an online petition against the imposition of on street parking charges and meters, yet Surrey County Council completely ignored them.
The council argues that because the existing enforcement system loses them £500,000 a year it needs to gain an extra £500,000 in income. That doesn’t square with what you were told, unless the extra money £500,000 is to shore up the profits of the parking enforcement company. So why not sack the parking enforcers? Why should residents suffer simply to keep an outfit in profit they don’t want in their town anyway?
See: www.honestjohn.co.uk/news/legal--motoring-advice/2.../
The council argues that because the existing enforcement system loses them £500,000 a year it needs to gain an extra £500,000 in income. That doesn’t square with what you were told, unless the extra money £500,000 is to shore up the profits of the parking enforcement company. So why not sack the parking enforcers? Why should residents suffer simply to keep an outfit in profit they don’t want in their town anyway?
See: www.honestjohn.co.uk/news/legal--motoring-advice/2.../
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