Try parking in Westminster - just north of Oxford street - at 9.15 pm at night. Fail to notice the signs which say 'residents parking only at any time' - it's dark, they're badly lit, and anyway, parking restrictions at 9pm at night?
By 10.25, the car had been towed away.
£200 for tow charges (to half a mile away), £60 for parking fine.
Ouch. The car was unarguably illegally parked. But what prompt response! The tow charges strike me as wholly disproportionate, a little like bank overdraft letter charges.
The Council runs two levels of parking fine - £40 for minor offences, and £60 for offences which cause a 'major restriction to traffic flow and major inconvenience to other motorists.'
It certainly wasn't causing a restriction to traffic flow, it was after all a designated parking bay.
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This is one of many reasons i'm looking forward to getting out of this pink fluffy dice country and live elseware.
What annoys but more so upsets me is that people allow goings on like this to happen. If everybody stood up to wholly disproportionate theft like this, we wouldn't have a problem!
Fight it, take the clampers to court and the council for that matter for failing to provide adequately lit road signs in a sensible position.
Best of luck.
Dan
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Don't count on it not happening else where. If you are in a big Western city then the same thing goes on to a greater or lesser extent. The answer is to try not to go into areas where your car is not welcome. The local traders will notice the difference and hopefully pressure the council. Hard on the traders and inconvenient for you but what is the alternative?
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Bad luck Mapmaker. Westminster used to be spot on when it came to parking. You could park almost anywhere after 1pm on a Saturday and after 6pm any other night.
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To be fair, if its 'residents' parking only' then the residents probably give the council an ear-bashing if they allow 'strangers' to park there.
I once parked in a 'residents' parking bay at a local block of apartments for about 15mins (I was visiting a resident to discuss a business matter between us). There were loads and loads of empty spaces. However when I came out to my car an old bloke and his wife had blocked me in and got very stroppy about letting me out.
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The employees of the firm Westminster have employed to enforce parking are apparently on commission for towing away cars.
There are some roads in the area of the Albert Hall that have additional restrictions on parking - on single yellow lines, meters, and resident's bays - to that imposed in the rest of the Borough. One major road(Queen's Gate) has Kensington parking restrictions on one side of the road and Westminster parking restrictions on the other. A very confused situation.
Within minutes of a show starting in the Albert Hall, there are tow trucks cruising the streets and swooping like vultures on any illegally parked cars. On a good day each truck can shuttle back to the compound with their 'prize' several times.
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The OP underlines the risk involved in careless parking in some parts of London even quite late at night. If it's any consolation, Londoners are almost certainly the main source of income for these money-grubbing carphound councils. Safe single yellow line evening parkers can be found quite easily within ten minutes' walk of most parts of the West End, but you have to know where they are. Beware Hoxton and the area around Queensway.
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>>>If it's any consolation, Londoners are almost certainly the main source of income
Why should it be?
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>>Why should it be?>>
Presumably because they should know better.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
What\'s for you won\'t pass you by
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I thought ti might console the posters here who complain about London and its many hidden charges, gross inconvenience, criminality etc.... No consolation to you of course Mm, but you live in London perhaps? Of course you have all my sympathy. Been there, done it, more than once, and felt a right thingy too...
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It wasn't me, but some friends (from out of town) who dropped in for a drink as they passed. I hadn't realised that some res parking is 24 hour, some stops at 8.30pm. And Saturday night parking is shocking.
I felt very bad about it as I thought I was reasonably up to speed on the local parking rules.
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It had broken down hadnt it? It wouldnt start would it? The towers didnt see the note in the dark did they? Yes it started at the pound though it was cold by then wasnt it?
Perhaps write to the enforcement people?
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Ignoring the imorality of your suggestion, Cheddar, you suggest writing to the enforcement people telling lies that might just end up in court where I shall be required either to perjure myself or to engage in a humiliating backtrack? No thanks, Cheddar. I'll leave that sort of activity to you and other low life types.
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Sorry, that sounds a bit harsh. But the sentiment is there...
Law broken, law states what happens when law broken, tough. Lying ones way out of the problem is not acceptable in my book.
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It had broken down hadnt it? It wouldnt start would it? The towers didnt see the note in the dark did they? Yes it started at the pound though it was cold by then wasnt it? Perhaps write to the enforcement people?
The enforcement authority just might have heard that story before!
Anyway, its these little stories that make me so glad that I don't live in London. Had to go there twice this year on business and it was twice too often. Never use Heathrow or Gatwick airport either - terrible to get to and terrible places. Go to B'ham and change planes at a European hub (Schipol, Zurich, Munich) - its worth the extra flying time.
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change planes at a European hub (Schipol Zurich Munich) - its worth the extra flying time.
See what I mean? A busy and quite often rational professional non-Londoner states clearly that he would rather be defying the law of gravity and the worst El Qaeda can do in a flimsy aluminium tube than hang about making agreeable conversation in the hub of the universe.
:o{
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See what I mean? A busy and quite often rational professional non-Londoner states clearly that he would rather be defying the law of gravity....
I'm with him I'm afraid! I only go to London when I really need to, and even then I'll drive into the outskirts and get the tube into the city. Then I'm out of the place as quick as I can. Everything's ridiculously expensive in London, why should parking fines be any different? IIRC the parking fines around here (Co Durham) are around £30-40 for parking in a residents' area.
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Well we will have to do without you I suppose. But remember that it will be your loss as well as ours.
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>>Ignoring the imorality of your suggestion, Cheddar, you suggest writing to the enforcement people telling lies>>
No, I presented a reason why the car may have legitimately been there.
The suggestion that you write to the enforcement people was independent of the above, a legitimate approach in any case, explaining the badly lit signs etc.
>>I'll leave that sort of activity to you and other low life types.>>
I am not sure what I find more offensive Mapmaker your insulting comment or you holier-than-thou attitude !!
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>>Ignoring the immorality [Hurrah, I can correct that typo] of your suggestion, Cheddar, you suggest writing to the enforcement people telling lies>>
>>No, I presented a reason why the car may have legitimately been there.
Nonsense. You tried to come up with a cock and bull story why a car that I knew full well had been illegally parked was in fact not illegally parked. I was there, you were not. If that's not an encouragement to me to tell lies then I don't know what is!
>>your insulting comment
I did apologise for that two and a half hours ago. If however you seriously consider my attitude to be holier than thou, then I unreservedly withdraw my earlier apology. I was brought up to tell the truth and obey the law. I do not spit in the street, steal policemen's helmets or tell lies to law enforcement authorities. Do you really exist in a moral vacuum where the truth is something to be played with? If so I have no desire to join you.
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Do you really exist in a moral vacuum where the truth is something to be playedwith? If so I have no desire to join you.
YOU, my old mate, should go back to making maps............get a life for "blasphemy edited goodness sake.
MD
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I did apologise for that two and a half hours ago. If however you seriously consider my attitude to be holier than thou then I unreservedly withdraw my earlier apology.
I consider it withdrawn then M because you are frankly taking a holier than thou attitude.
I simply made a few slightly tounge in cheek comments trying to indicate that these things are not always cut and dried!
No I would not lie to the authourities, however I would argue the toss on the basis of reason, badly lit signs etc, £260 justifies a few letters me thinks.
Oh, and I make no apologies for the odd tyop!
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OK - let's move on.....Pax.
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Pax ?
Try "what does pax mean?" in Google see the dictionary answer
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I only go to London when I really need to, and even then I'll drive into the outskirts and get the tube into the city.
Same for me, if I'm alone travelling to London, thameslink train + tube is cheaper than fuel cost. And I usually travel to London off peak hours anyway.
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The enforcement authority just might have heard that story before!
I agree though my point was that there are any number of legitimate reason why the car may have been there for instance M says "Fail to notice the signs which say 'residents parking only at any time' - it's dark, they're badly lit".
"they're badly lit" is a good starting point.
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£260 - that's tough. Now you know about parking in Westminster and the over-zealous parking attendants. Get a taxi next time if possible - cheaper. Even the NCPs are cheaper...!
One thing though. Parking attendants from the same borough recently prevented the second of the Mercedes loaded with gas cylinders from 'going off' in a built up area by towing the 'illegally parked' car to the pound.
Not that I'm making any connection.
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Not going to help you now, but the Government recently issued new parking enforcement guidelines, stating that cars shouldn't be clamped or towed unless they were creating an obstruction, and not for first time offenders. Apparently they've just realised that annoying the generally law-abiding public with excessive enforcement of petty parking regulations isn't a good idea...
{Link to The Times deleted, a forum search may well reveal why - DD}
Quote from the article:
?Clamping and removal at night is particularly discouraged because of the extra inconvenience, and potential danger to vulnerable motorists.?
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One must accept that an act of terrorism is a less grevious offence than that of parking on a double yellow line.
--
e Prôf - Another Recycled Teenager
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"One must accept that an act of terrorism is a less grevious offence than that of parking on a double yellow line."
Not said with any irony :-o It used to be its "not the crown Jewels you know"
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