Interesting article in the current edition of the Tameside Advertiser. Apparently Tameside Council takes £600,000 every year in parking fines from motorists.
Traffic wardens or parking enforcement officers, as they are sometimes referred to are a necessary if somewhat unloved part of everyday life for many motorists.
I can appreciate they have a job do otherwise we would have total chaos on our roads and in our town centres. You need to travel no further than the A6, Stockport Road as it passes through Levenshulme and Longsight to see what happens when parking enforcement is abandoned. It is a recipe for chaos and frustration where the law biding road user faces huge delays due to the actions of thoughtless and selfish drivers who think it is acceptable to park where they choose, even if it does create bottlenecks and cause jams for others.
My gripe is not with traffic wardens or parking restrictions but I do get angry at the way wardens are often so eager to pounce on the unsuspecting motorist. I have witnessed on many occasions wardens loitering at the back of Wetherspoons in Stalybridge ready to ticket those who have exceeded the allotted time limit in a parking bay. These type of actions add to the woes of small towns who are already on their knees due to lack of trade. If I for one received a £50 fine for returning to my car two minutes after my ticket expired the chances are I would not return to that location again and if it were a shopping expedition I was on I would shop elsewhere in future.
This brings me to my next point; free parking and the lack of it. A poster on this blog recently claimed Cllr Sweeton was on the radio talking of a plan to axe free parking on the upper tiers of the Hyde multi-storey car park. During these times of exceptional economic hardship I could not believe that such a proposal was even being discussed. Hyde, like Stalybridge and other small town centres is really struggling and the council should be working to attract incoming trade not drive it away. It does not take a genius to work out that many motorists who regularly shop in Hyde will review their options when and if free parking is axed.
This is not the first time I have blogged about parking issues in Tameside. I could not believe it when I watched the crane getting a ticket in Ashton back in 2010 as it waited to go on site. The crane driver had no option but to grin and bear because he was working. After the event he undoubtedly had to go through the laborious motions of appealing against being wrongfully ticketed. Unlike the crane driver ordinary motorists do have other options and if the council think £600,000 per year in parking fines is ‘good business’, they are working from a flawed philosophy because for every £600,000 they make in parking fines they will lose threefold as once thriving towns are reduced to ghost towns.
84 comments:
The crane driver deserved a ticket parking that thing on double yellow lines while he nipped for his lunch. I went to Oldham today and paid an extra 50p so I had plenty of time on my ticket. Many people try it on and then moan when they get a ticket. It's easy to blame parking fees when the bigger problem is less money in our pockets; increased food costs, energy prices, no pay rises. And from a previuos post it was mentioned about out of town shopping centers. But I suppose it gives some people the chance to have a go at local councils.
If the crane driver did deserve a parking ticket it would have been for displaying a large white Yorkshire Rose in his cab (click image to enlarge) in a proud Lancashire town.
The reality of the situation as I understood it was that he hadn’t nipped out for lunch but was waiting to get permission to set up his crane in front of a nearby building.
Traffic wardens used to ticket obstructive, dangerous or piss taking drivers. Now they are a revenue raising arm of the State. Labour created a reckless spending culture to make the State, local and national, as large as possible. The results of such reckless and deliberately destructive governance was the economic ruin Labour left behind.
Councils like Tameside, instead of realising the game's up and instituting major restructuring and trying to govern within the new realistic financial constraints, adopt any lunatic, damaging or counterproductive idea that comes along providing it has one criteria: it raises revenue.
The car driver in particular has long been seen as an easy source of revenue, from road tax, to speed cameras, to the army of Traffic wardens. If you're easily traceable via your number plate and have committed 'serious' offences like overstaying by two minutes or driving like a maniac at 33 mph they'll dip into your wallet to fill up their coffers.
Kicking down centres to death while they're down is irrelevant to TMBC as long as they get the revenue. Denton and Droylsden recently came ninth and tenth in the entire country for the highest pecentage of closed down shops in the high steet.
Expanding parking charges in the current economic circumstances when so many people and so many town centre shops are struggling is sheer lunacy.
Try cutting back on the £1.25 million spent on our 57 councillors every year for starters, and stop paying individuals ludicrous amunts.
If tens of millions of ordinary people have been severely hit in the pay packet, why should the upper echelons of Tameside Council be exempt.
Anonymous, if we've got less money in our pockets as you suggest, due to 'increased food costs, energy prices, no pay rises', then ADDING to those problems by increasing the spread of town centre parking charges will make things even worse for retailers. The council should be doing the opposite.
'66% of appeals are successful' it says in the article, if that doesn't prove how incompetent and overzealous they are nothing does. The Wardens must be being pressurized to use zero discretion and ticket everything.
Peter Harrison. I don't think TMBC are expanding charges. My understanding is they haven't been increased for years and not even when the Vat went upto 20%. some councils increased at that point. TMBC didn't. I think they also get credit for free parking after 3pm Thursday to saturday
Let's hope they have the real crackdown they're promising in the piece and all those 'evil' disabled people who didn't display their blue badges correctly are fleeced as much as possible instead of being let off. Jesus wept.
I questioned TMBC about the appeals. Most of the successful ones are where motorists can prove they paid. In other words they had a ticket but it wasn't on display eg it was on floor or somewhere. Don't think TMBC can be blamed for that.
If they're bringing them into the upper levels in Hyde Town Centre they're expanding them. I said 'increasing the spread' I didn't mention the charges.
Yes but not 66%, or anything like it. Two thirds pf parkers don't mis-display their tickets, especially not in Tameside with Traffic wardens round every corner.
It's overzealousness pure and simple.
Peter Harrison. Point accepted but I spoke to someone in the know and the car park was always pay and display. The indoor mall management offered to pay for free parking on top two tiers. They paid for few years but then They then stopped paying. I suppose it's not trendy to criticize them but having a go at TMBC is easy game. I wonder if they stopped paying because they realized that free parking doesn't increase foot fall?
If you don't park in restricted areas you wont get a ticket,
Never got a parking ticket in my life. Always pay the car park fee, always come back to car on time, never park on double yellows or in restricted areas, never cause an obstruction. Easy for some.
We can't all be perfect Ronnie.
I'm not perfect by any means but I find parking and not getting a ticket quite easy. I'm hopeless at Suduko though.
So the coach driver wants more enforcement (around schools) as long as it doesn't affect him. I reckon the parents would advocate booking the coach driver outside the swimming baths who left his coach whilst he went shopping.......sorry whilst he returned some swimming kit.
2045: Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has said he will continue to recognise Col Gaddafi as the legitimate leader of Libya, expressing solidarity with the "bombarded Libyan people".
My thought go to Gaddaffi and to the Libyan people including the misguided 'rebels' at this time.
The terrorists have allowed the Jewish oil interests a free pass to rape their land of its naturl resources. Whatever you think of Muammar, at least he wasnt a globalist.
I stil have a massive respect for him for giving Britains arch enemy Griffin a load of books when he asked for money, no doubt for an extension to his house or something equally indulgent.
John Taylor hard working and worth every penny. Dukinfield residents not stupid. They vote him in every time.
Great response to the Labour scammers leaflet.
People pissed off with these bastards making all that money.
The people of Dukinfield vote for their three councillors every time.
No they don't they get elected on a minority.
No one votes.
Three Dukinfield councillors been working for their community for years
People are starting to get fed up with greedy Cllrs.
Things don't last forever in politics.
Times will get harder for people, and they'll see these Cllrs making all this money.
The latest survey of 85 public sector organisations has revealed NONE are planning pay cuts and only 1 in 5 are to freeze automatic pay rises meaning 80% will get salary increases.
It's also been revealed £23 million a year of taxpayer's money is being used to fund public sector Union officials.
The vast bulk of the public sector lives in its own little recession exempt world, while tens of millions in the real world suffer pay cuts and struggle to make ends meet.
Anonymous, the top two floors have been free for many many years. Now is exactly the wrong time to re-introduce charging when people are struggling so much. It's nonsense to say free parking doesn't affect foot fall. People who know what they're doing, i.e professional retailers like Tesco, Morrisons etc, and not public sector organisations like councils, are fully aware of the benefits of free parking.
No-one is 'having a go at TMBC' they're being justifiably critical using reasoned argument.
TMBC's hostility to the private car, from speed bumps, to parking charges, to hordes of overzealous Traffic wardens, caused by a combination of desperation for revenue and warped ideologies is costing many individuals and businesses very dear.
Ronnie Rabbit, this debate is about the expansion of parking charges and overzealous use of fines and Traffic wardens in a recession, and the potential effect it has on town centre businesses at a point when many are under severe financial stress.
TC, come on, once and for all will you ban the imbecilic moron before he destroys your blog with his monotonous repetitive written diarrhoea. If he refuses to go peacefully make a blog called the Dukinfield Cesspool and let him post on it unopposed to his hearts content. We can then get down to discussing the big issues like parking charges and the X-Factor.
Stalybridge is the worst, you can't turn a corner without bumping into a Traffic Warden. Meanwhile the shopping areas are dead.
TC. Yes the council may collect £600k from times, but how much is spent on traffic wardens and Tameside Patrollers who hand out these fines?
Or if it is outsourced as some people say. Then how much are they paying this private company?
I bet you they are no where near making £600k. So it begs the question as to why? Speaking to many local shop keepers in Ashton, they say customers are put off by the opportunistic wardens. It's killing local trade.
Many councils give out free car parking to encourage footfall. Tory Trafford only charges 20p for their car parks, when Labour Tameside is known to be the most expensive outside of the city centre.
All our towns have free parking whether on the street or in a supermarket car park. You might have to walk a bit further but they are there. Personally I don't have a problem paying £1 and having my car on a lit carpark with attendants. The plight of our town centres is a much bigger issue with people going to retail parks or just not having the spending power due to increased food and energy bills.
Roy, how much have you had in eight years from the state, how much have you had for the past twenty odd years from the state.
Have you ever had a job,and earned any money paid taxes and contributed to the community, or is it all take take take.
I'm hard core Labour socialist in 1984, but when I got elected to Tameside Council. I thought this is alright. Soon became a very rich man.
Made well over £300,00 and thats not bad for hard left street thug from the 70's.
Jackie Lane escaped Central flats in Duki, to be £130,000 gravy train rider.
Now she works with her Dawson making a packet.
Lane, J
Assistant Executive Member - Heritage and Tourism, Deputy Chair - Dukinfield District Assembly
Basic Allowance - £11,640.00
Special Responsibility Allowance - £8,352.00
Total - £19,992.00
***********************************
Deputy Mayor, Assistant Executive Member - Sport and Leisure Deputy Chair of Denton & Audenshaw District Assembly
Basic Allowance - £11,640.00
Special Responsibility Allowance - £8,352.00
Deputy Mayoral Allowance - £3,840.00
Total - £23,832.00
Tameside Council is a criminal organisation full of Labour Councillors with dodgy, criminal, pasts.
Working with new charter housing making lots of money.
Using third pary, hard-left groups in elections.
Getting care home votes and postal votes by the thousands.
I am a man of great Integrity, thats why I work with a criminal led organisation to spread allegation and smear, against other people in the community.
You may ask the question: Why do I work with hard left groups?
I don't want any threat to my money making scam on Tameside Council.
TC. Here we go again. Sensible debate and then Mr West starts up.
Come on West, sling your hook and stop sabotaging debate. Either give your opinions on the subject we are discussing or get lost bacause I too have had enough of you. You are a bloody bore.
MRM makes an excellent point. I did not take those things into consideration but it is worthy of further investigation. If the wardens were so eager because they earn extra for every ticket they issue, now that would be a real scandal which would need exposing.
I was also shocked to hear that Trafford only charge 20p for parking and Tameside is the most expensive borough outside of a city centre. Do we have any evidence to support these claims?
I get the impression Roger Rabbit is not suffering the same privations as most other citizens of Tameside. I would guess that RR is a public sector employee and therefore is protected from the severe economic hardship brought about as a result of the recession.
To RR car parking fees may be an irrelevance but to others who have to count every penny it is an issue that matters.
For what its worth I also think the person posting about alleged wrongdoings by councillors should either stop or be banned. It is getting very boring and there is nothing new, just the same old regurgitated hash.
YOUR VOTES MEAN MONEY TO THE LABOUR SCAMMERS.
Every Penny Counts so what do you know about Labour Cllrs and their methods?
Why does Cllr Jim Fitzpatrick work with a criminal led organisation, spreading smear and allegation?
Look Roy, you're a sore loser that is obvious for all to see. The people who voted for the current councillors and rejected you did so because they liked the policies of those they elected and disliked yours. Now go and do us all a favour and stop ruining this blog with your boring posts.
Yes Roy get off this blog site.
It looks like we have finally got rid of him. Now to the serious business. Is it true that Tameside has the most expensive parking charges of any Gtr Manchester borough?
giro west the camcorder pest
bog off and stop spamming the blog with your boring BS
loser!
Every penny counts.... Only rid of him for now. I don't thInk it's true that Tameside is highest. I was in Oldham yesterday and paid same, Stockport the other week and same. I was in Ashton last week on Friday after 3 pm and it was free. And I'm not a public sector worker before you ask
Tameside MBC has obviously identified parking enforcement as a source of “additional income" and is using parking controls as a “stealth tax” to raise cash by exploiting motorists.
Local authorities are supposed to be forbidden from using parking fines to raise cash, as the power to fine should only be used to manage and improve traffic flow.
If non-one parked illegally TMBC would get no fines.
Duki 4 West 0 why do you feel the need to tell me that?
If I'm a loser leave it at that.
Duki 4 West 0 not getting elected is the end of the world for me.
But it would be, if the Labour scammers of money did not get elected.
So carry on showing an interest in my campaign in Duki.
Many local authorities abuse their power in this way now. In central Manchester many minor backstreets 15 minutes walk or so from the shops where people used to park free, now charge. You get nothing for this charge, I used to be a taxi driver and regularly parked up in these streets for waiting time and they aren't patrolled. The council's attitude isn't responsible and accountable governance it's, we're in charge so we can do what we want. They're desperate for revenue to avoid the long overdue major structural reform that absorbs so much taxpayer's money.
Ronnie rabbit,
Roy does derail topics but hes fighting a justified campaign. Accordingt to a neighbour of mine a dear neighbour of mine named Jean Brasil, during her stint as the Mayoress, claimed £18,000 in expenses.
She is supposed to have claimed petrol money (despite being ferried around by a driver), a laptop, clothes for her and her husband amongst other things (Ive heard tales of redecorators).
Now tell me why when I have to work 30 hours a week in a charity shop for £50 a week, these selfish class-traitors can act like the sheriff of bleedin' Nottingham and take money from the poor to fatten their grotesque forms?
'If no-one parked illegally TMBC would get no fines', penetrating insight.
I think the issue's a bit more complex than that. Try reading some of the more pertinent and intelligent posts on here and you'll see.
Anon. I know the issue is more complex but the comment was made in contrast to some of the 'councils at fault for everything' comments.
'The people who voted for the current councillors and rejected you did so because they liked the policies of those they elected.' The average Tameside Labour voter hasn't got more than the vaguest idea about policies, at best, and votes for whoever's wearing a red rosette.
'The council's at fault for everything' comments aren't pertinent or intelligent. Try the many that are.
Ronnie Rabbit is John 'knuckles bluehouse' Taylor.
Anon. The problem is I can't find many pertinent or intelligent coments.
No I'm not John Taylor. I'm Ronnie Rabbit the defender of common sense
I've never had a ticket so if every other motorist complied with regulations there would be no fines. So how come TMBC use enforcement as a means of getting income. If everyone parked properly there would have no fine income and then presumably they would have problems.
Mr West who looks after Mrs West when your out leafleting , don't you get paid to care for her.
How much state benefits do you claim to care for her while your out leafleting this could be fraud.
Ronnie Rabbit, irrelevant, simplistic, repetition without reference to previously raised points and arguments is even more of a waste of time than Mr West's comments.
This debate is about exploitation of the motorist by a draconian and overzealous approach by Tameside Council, that could actively harm town centre businesses in a recession. And is also exploiting the public, many of whom are struggling financially. The motivation for the above is not safety, traffic flow or sensible, balanced local governance, but purely financial.
If the Council is so deperate for money they should first consider more radical methods of REDUCING EXPENDITURE before punishing already hard pressed retailers and members of the public. A good start would be to reduce the current ludicrous ratio of one councillor for every 3700 constituents (MPs have a ratio of one to every 100,000).
£1.25 million spent on upholding such a ratio would be nonsense in a boom, in a recession it's criminal lunacy. The Borough can't afford it. The same goes for six figure salaries, if the 'ordinary' people are feeling it why should the upper echelons of the council be exempt.
We're exempt.....
Lots of assumptions in that post. Just like Mr West. Shows a total lack of knowledge of local governance and financing of local government.
Taylor Lab 1905
Marshal Tory 550
West BNP 340
Its not a rush of phone call needed ,its a rush of people to vote for you .
how bad did you do.
Again I say, I don't see not getting elected as being the end of the world.
Unlike the Labour money scammers need to win at all costs.
Someone phoned me today about the car-clocking rumour.
A woman just said, about the person in question.
He turned the mileage clock back on cars.
Anonymous, what assumptions?
Demonstrate what you mean by 'a total lack of knowledge of local governance and financing of local government', with specific regard to the points raised in my post.
Spending £1.25 million on 57 councillors (and handing out six figure sums to individuals) to represent only 215,000 people, in a recession when so many are struggling to make ends meet, shows a total lack of contact with reality, financial and otherwise.
We're exempt
Well one small point is your assumption that the £1.25m spent on local councillors is the answer. That probably represents less than 1% of total spend. Hardly the answer. Local Govt finance = Govt grant + local rates + income.
how bad did you do.
I have a Clear Conscience when I campaign in the elections.
But John Taylor acts violently, incites others.
Knocks on my neighbours door trying to incite violence.
Calls in violent groups to do his dirty work for him
I've seen it all from this thug.
This thug even teamed up with violent criminals, that forced a disabled mother out of her home.
Just to get at me.
Thats the quality of the man.
I once had a chat with a Tameside trafic warden. he told me he once booked a disabled driver who had inadvertently displayed his blue badge face down.
He told the driver he was sorry he had to do it. He even told him how to successfully appeal against the booking.
So why did he book the driver? BECAUSE THE CCTV CAMERA HAD SEEN WHAT HAD HAPPENED AND THE WARDEN HAD NO CHOICE!
Meanwhile the CCTV cameras around Ashton Moss were unable to detcet a grop of conmen before Christmans last year even though, with Richmond St bridge closed, it was impossible to leave the estate without passing a camera
Tonydj
Sounds like a load of rubbish to me. You can't blame TMBC for the CCTV on Ashton Moss. Not their problem. As for the Blue Badge incident they don't use CCTV for that. It's obvious if a badge is not displayed properly. I was talking to someone who said 10,000 blue badges issued in Tameside alone. That's one for every 10 houses.
Anonymous, I didn't say it was 'the answer', I said it was an unjustifiably large amount to spemd on elected representatives for a Borough of this size, especially in the current dire economic circumstances. I also said it would be a good place to START.
Don't misquote me, it makes your argument look weak.
You're right about blue badges anonymous, there was a massive and unprecedented increase in 'disabled' people under New Labour. Many are on the scrounge and fiddling it as an increase of that size in a few years, in the physically incapacitated is a medical impossibility. It's most rife in Labour strongholds but hey, it's guaranteed votes.
Anonymous @14.49
I agree, it did sound implausable, but I will not call him a liar. He may have been misinformed but the fact that he believed the story speaks volumes.
As for CCTV, I quote from Tameside's own web site:-
"With a state of the art surveillance system in place, complimented by 75 cameras operating around the Borough, Tameside's 24hour CCTV Control Room is working around the clock to ensure public safety, enhance the quality of life and assisting to reduce the fear of crime..."
"Tameside Council is committed to ensuring that the CCTV system provides protection to the public and supports the work of the Police by providing evidence and intelligence to aid prosecutions"
Sounde to me like it is their problem.
Tonydj
I don't think that quote from TMBC website means 100% coverage. I don't mind criticism where's it due but to blame them for not covering Ashton Moss is pushing it a bit.
I appreciate you couldn't call the parking attendant guy a liar but it does seem a little far fetched.
Hey Diddle Diddle
I wouldn't go that far with blue badge holders but 1 in 10 households having one seems a lot. And not every household has a car so the percentage is far greater. And let's face it the blue badge is issued because of disability not the ability to pay for parking.
Things like bad backs and trapped nerves are virtually impossible to disprove. Benefit claims for such things rocketed under Labour.
Whoa anonymous, I think we are at cross-purposes here!
When I said Ashton Moss I meant the Crowhill Estate, when I was a lad living on the estate we called it "Ashton Moss", a throwback I imagine to where it was built on. I still sometimes revert to my younger days and say "Ashton Moss"
Yes, it would be expecting a lot of anybody to monitor the Moss!
Sorry for the confusion!
Tonydj
Confusion over the moss sorted. I know where're you mean now.
John Taylor has a free car park pass which is used to take his wife shopping.
Anon 'John Taylor has a free car park pass which is used to take his wife shopping.'
No he doesn't. Got your facts wrong there mate
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