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PostPosted: Fri May 02, 2008 18:23 
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Put this in here as it's Ernest's part of the country. Sounds like you have some parking scumbags round your way Ernest :(

Daily Telegraph

Quote:
Warden tickets sleeping pensioner's car
By Tom Peterkin
Last Updated: 11:58AM BST 02/05/2008

A traffic warden gave a £35 parking ticket to an octogenarian with advanced Parkinson's Disease while she was asleep in her car.

Jean Raine,82, was legally parked in a disabled bay, but was fined because her orange disabled parking disc had been inadvertently displayed upside down.

Miss Raine took a nap in her Vauxhall Corsa after feeling unwell on a shopping trip to Kendal, Cumbria.

”I cannot understand why the parking attendant didn't wake me up. I wouldn't have got a ticket then,” Miss Raine of nearby Burton-in-Kendal said.

”He must have been on tip toes, so quiet that he didn't disturb me.”

Miss Raine, a retired nurse, and Martin Westgarth,88, her companion of 30-years, had been driven to Kendal by a neighbour Pauline Gibson do to their weekly shop.

Mr Westgarth and Mrs Gibson popped into Boots for 45 minutes and when they came back they found that a South Lakeland Council traffic warden had given Miss Raine a ticket.

Mr Westgarth, also from Burton-in-Kendal, said: “I went in to do the shopping and when I got back to the car there was a ticket on it.

”Why did she get a ticket while she was sitting in the car? Because the card in the window that shows she was disabled, it turns out, was upside down.

”The person who put the ticket on the window didn't talk to Jean. You would have thought that he would have said something to her. This is intolerable. She is legally entitled to park there car where she was, why should her right be taken away from her just because the card was upside down?”

”We were in a disabled space. The disabled badge was valid. If this idiot, who pinched her, had spoken to her and said that the card was the wrong way round that could have been it.”

He added: “Why on Earth didn't this civil enforcement officer - a traffic warden when said and done - ask her to move her parking disc. Why did she get a ticket when she was sitting in the car?”

Mrs Gibson agreed to drive them into town, because Miss Raine was too poorly to drive. An MRSA bug infection in his left leg prevented Mr Westgarth from driving.

The couple appealed to South Lakeland Council but their appeal was rejected.

In the end they paid the fine, but are considering whether to take the case to an independent tribunal.

A council spokesman said: "We do not comment on individual cases. If anyone feels they have reason to challenge a penalty charge notice then they can appeal to the council in the first instance, followed by an appeal to an independent tribunal if they choose. Guidance notes issued with the badge and parting disc clearly state that it should be clearly and correctly displayed at all times.”

Recently, a South Lakeland Council parking warden was soaked with two buckets of water when he put a ticket on a fishmonger's van while it was being loaded outside a store in Kendal town centre.

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PostPosted: Fri May 02, 2008 19:28 
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Kendal?
Where's that then?

I avoid it like the plague, and only go in if I have to. The road system was designed by a complete moron who should not be allowed near a road scheme of any kind. I wouldn't even allow him to lay a Scalextric track!!
I believe that parking earns more money than any other source of income for the Council.

Windermere will be getting the same treatment soon though. :oops: I believe Keswick already has!

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PostPosted: Sat May 03, 2008 09:23 
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Notice Mr Westgarth said the warden "pinched" her - is this a figure of speech, or an allegation of assault?

Ernest is dead right about the Kendal traffic system though, the lunatics really did take over the asylum :o

BTW whatever happened to Nick Raymond's (Cumbria CC Area Engineer) promise of strict enforcement of the turning restrictions at Maude Street/Stricklandgate? Still being widely defied and the BIB ignore it.

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PostPosted: Sat May 03, 2008 09:36 
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kendalian wrote:
BTW whatever happened to Nick Raymond's (Cumbria CC Area Engineer) promise of strict enforcement of the turning restrictions at Maude Street/Stricklandgate? Still being widely defied and the BIB ignore it.

Are you not allowed to turn right then? :shock:
In this age where we are urged to cut back emissions and avoid unnecessary journeys, are you saying we should turn left and go 3/4 of a mile in the wrong direction, through three sets of lights, go around a round-a-bout then go BACK the way we came through the same three sets of lights.... just to avoid turning right into a short cul-de-sac??? You must be stark raving bonkers!!
Oh... he is!! :x :x

Nearly as bad is ticketing an elderly lady for having the disabled badge upside down!
I can see why he wouldn't wake her - she might have had two buckets of water ready to throw over him... who knows it might catch on as a popular form of protest!
Penalising people for breaking a law is one thing - but when the offence is just one of carelessness, on the part of a senior citizen......! :no:

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PostPosted: Sun May 04, 2008 16:53 
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Its a business, the 'wardens' are on incentives and the goal is to make as much money as possible. Why would they use common sense when they can get one more 'collar' towards their figures through pedantry? How ironic that they belong to the same category of people as those who complain when innocent people are acquitted on a 'technicality', when all they themselves enforce are 'technicalities'!

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PostPosted: Sun May 04, 2008 20:57 
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RobinXe wrote:
Its a business, the 'wardens' are on incentives and the goal is to make as much money as possible. Why would they use common sense when they can get one more 'collar' towards their figures through pedantry? How ironic that they belong to the same category of people as those who complain when innocent people are acquitted on a 'technicality', when all they themselves enforce are 'technicalities'!

Absolutely. It's one of the main indicators that it's all about raising revenue and persecuting motorists, rather than "enforcing the law".

Since "decriminalised" parking enforcement came in, we've all heard about many ridiculous tickets, but this is one of the most despicable yet. While the incentive is revenue raising rather than keeping traffic moving, we will always get cases like this. Disabled people, old people, vulnerable people and everyone else will always suffer. The only way of stopping it is to fundamentally change the system so that no council or private company benefits from maximising tickets.

That poor woman. Decriminalised parking enforcement has led directly to this incident, and it shows how disgustingly callous and rabid the car-haters who unconditionally support such systems really are. (What exactly is the point in trying to bully an 82-year-old Parkinson's sufferer out of her car anyway? Is she supposed to get the bus and cycle everywhere? There is no logic behind this anti-car nonsense, it's just persecution for the sake of it.)

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PostPosted: Mon May 05, 2008 12:05 
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Not wishing to blow my own civic trumpet too much, but I like to think that with this poor woman and the other poor sod whose wheelie bin lid was open 4", I think I can confidently say that petty and vindictive enforcement of needless beaurocracy is something we do rather well here in Cumbria! :oops:


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PostPosted: Tue May 06, 2008 15:32 
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Waking someone and telling them that they are parked "illegally"? Where's the profit in that?

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PostPosted: Tue May 06, 2008 15:35 
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Ziltro wrote:
Waking someone and telling them that they are parked "illegally"? Where's the profit in that?


Especially when they rouse, turn their disabled badge the right way up, then go back to sleep! :x

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PostPosted: Tue May 06, 2008 18:07 
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There is some debate on our local newspaper site, as to whether the badge was upside down, or back to front!

Either way, a polite enquiry would have gained the answer - and lost a revenue opportunity! :x

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PostPosted: Tue May 06, 2008 18:24 
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Quote:
Jean Raine,82, was legally parked in a disabled bay, but was fined because her orange disabled parking disc had been inadvertently displayed upside down.


are orange badges legal these days, i thought disabled badges were now blue

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PostPosted: Tue May 06, 2008 18:42 
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camera operator wrote:
Quote:
Jean Raine,82, was legally parked in a disabled bay, but was fined because her orange disabled parking disc had been inadvertently displayed upside down.


are orange badges legal these days, i thought disabled badges were now blue


They are blue. I found this info here according to the link blue badges have been out since 2000.

I don't know how long the orange badges would have lasted; maybe it was a misprint in the article.

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PostPosted: Tue May 06, 2008 22:52 
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Is displaying the badge upside down an offence?

Reading here

http://www.opsi.gov.uk/si/si2000/20000682.htm#12

It simply states that the front of the badge must be "clearly legible from the outside of the vehicle".


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PostPosted: Tue May 06, 2008 23:03 
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Yes it's probably "high treason" or something arcane!


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PostPosted: Tue May 06, 2008 23:06 
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Seriously though, the rule simply states

Manner in which a badge is to be displayed
12. For the purposes of section 21(4A) of the 1970 Act a disabled person's badge is displayed on a vehicle in the prescribed manner if-

(a) the badge is exhibited on the dashboard or facia of the vehicle, or

(b) where the vehicle is not fitted with a dashboard or facia, the badge is exhibited in a conspicuous position on the vehicle,

so that the front of the badge is clearly legible from the outside of the vehicle.



That's all, nothing about orientation. If it was on the dash, but "upside down" then it is clearly legible by walking around to the side of the vehicle and viewing the information from the side window.


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PostPosted: Wed May 07, 2008 12:16 
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As I said - the debate will be about whether it was "upside down" or "back to front".

If you put a book down on the dash, it will appear UPSIDE DOWN from the outside - so it's a simple error to make.

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PostPosted: Wed May 07, 2008 18:59 
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I'm absolutely sure that in the article, "upside down" means what Ernest presumably means by "back to front". In case anyone didn't know, the reason why they have the "back to front" rule is so that the enforcement officer can check/log the badge number (which does not for a minute excuse the blatant revenue-raising actions of the enforcement officer in this case...like with most aspects of DPE, the original rule was fairly well-intentioned and was supposed to be applied with discretion and common sense). There would be no remotely good reason to have an "upside down" (as Ernest means it) rule. Besides, where would it stop? Would someone be allowed to display their badge at, say, 90 degrees? What about 1 degree, or 179? However they defined it, it would be even more stupid than having an arbitrary speed limit.

The badge was displayed photo side up, i.e. with what should have been the upper side on the bottom (so I don't think that "upside down" is wrong, and the alternative definition proposed above didn't even occur to me when first reading the article).

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PostPosted: Thu May 08, 2008 15:39 
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I wrote to the council and got back an interesting response stating that there was more to the case that wasn't reported in the press.


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PostPosted: Thu May 08, 2008 17:33 
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mpaton2004 wrote:
I wrote to the council and got back an interesting response stating that there was more to the case that wasn't reported in the press.

I dont doubt that - but they seem remarkably reluctant to say what it was, instead sitting back and getting page after page of flak for the PEO's handling of the case. :(

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PostPosted: Thu May 15, 2008 06:05 
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mpaton2004 wrote:
I wrote to the council and got back an interesting response stating that there was more to the case that wasn't reported in the press.


Well do send us the content of what you asked, and what they said - could be interesting :)

- the sign could not have been flipped - they would have had to have reprinted it or it would have had to have been printed on a clear acetate and then flipped too. If upside down I agree I think that is really silly as the warden then admits to actually 'seeing' the badge ! And by also not then reporting it say out of date, or other error, would imply to a court that everything else was in order.

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