[jambutty]

Rules is rules, is rules and they are in place so that EVERYONE benefits.

Parking Wardens, as they are known nowadays, are necessary because far too many drivers, or people for that matter, show little or no consideration to their fellow men and women. So we have to have rules.

The main and only purpose of a road is for vehicular traffic to progress along it unhindered. Along each side there is a pavement or footpath or for our American cousins a sidewalk. This is for pedestrians only. It is not for cars to park on or for cyclists to ride on.

This may come as a shock to many people but the motorist does not have an inalienable right to park on the public highway, not even in front of his/her own house. Any car parked on the public highway CAN be booked for obstruction, unless it is parked in an area marked out for that purpose.

Many people like myself have a disabled bay marked out on the road by the Highways Agency of the local authority in front of or by the side of their house. Did you know that ANYONE could park in that bay, with or without a blue badge without fear of official retribution? The marking is nothing more than a courtesy to the disabled person. But if there is a plaque on an adjacent wall or lamppost stating that there is a disabled bay marked out then only people displaying a blue badge can park there with impunity. Of course it can only be the holder of the badge who is using that vehicle at the time that it was parked.

Some people think that a blue badge holder can park more or less where they like but that is not the case. Oh! Yes! We can park on yellow lines but only if in doing so we don’t cause an obstruction to other traffic. We cannot park where there are kerbside markings and where there is residential parking in front of homes – that is PERMIT HOLDERS ONLY.

If cars are parked on both sides of the street and a fire engine on an emergency call has need to travel down that street but in doing so is likely to damage the cars by destroying door mirrors along the way, then it can do so with impunity. Why? Because of paragraph #4. I guess that is why people park with one wheel on the pavement to protect their mirrors.

In many places the painting of single and double yellow lines seems to be done on a whim rather than a need. The local authority has the authority to paint the lines so if anyone has a problem with them, they should bug the Council and not whinge about Parking Wardens.

The Parking Wardens are doing a lawful job but some ‘jobs worth’ wardens take things to the extreme, although technically they are in the right. Does a few minutes overstay make such a huge difference in the general scheme of things? Er! Yes it does! Because during a small overstay some other motorist might have come along and could have been able to park in, but for you, a vacant spot. Instead that motorist drove away looking for a parking place and spewed yet more CO2 into the town’s atmosphere. On the other hand does it really matter if a wheel is half an inch over a line? Not really!

Sadly, since the local authority has taken over parking monitoring they view the job as a nice little earner for the Council coffers.

I wonder what would happen if everyone, and I mean everyone, adhered to the parking regulations in and around the town centre for a month or more? The Parking Wardens would not find anyone to book, the revenue would plummet and the Council would be paying people for doing nothing and equally important not bringing in the cash. How long would they stay employed? Just a thought!