im writing in utter disgust with sheffield city council there was an articule in the star about parking in sheffield it turns out there is now 32 yes 32 parking attendants and they have wrote out 2,800 ticket between april and may that reaps the council a grand total of £168,000 at a rate of £28,000 per week sheffield council insists its blitz on parking isnt a money making exercise but a effort 2 keep traffic flowing that 2 me smells like bull sh**e . as i often seen a parking services van parked up on city road giving out tickets 2 residents who resides on city road and at 8am cum on wake up and smell the coffee i recently was a victim of parking ive a disable child who was having a hypo on me so i put my blue badge in and low and behold receive a ticket because i had put it the wrong way round but i was 1 of the lucky 1s and got the ticket with held i am sick to the back teeth which i suppose most motorists r as we r easy pickings 4 wardens as well as the police we just make up the annual paid for all the fat cats who sit at they desks all day dreaming up more ways 2 hit us when the police should b out arresting the criminals who mug and attack people not motorists for a back light out or sumthing similar

i suppose most motorists r as we r easy pickings 4 wardens as well as the police we just make up the annual paid for all the fat cats who sit at they desks all day dreaming up more ways 2 hit us when the police should b out arresting the criminals who mug and attack people not motorists for a back light out or sumthing similar

The Police are no longer able to enforce parking legislation. It has been "de-criminalised", therefore allowing local authorities to employ private agencies to enforce legislation.

Well done Mr Blunket, another one we will all remember you for.

Its got nothing to do with the Police and everything to do with Politicians.

Well Louise, I understand your point. As a motorist I too am sick at the effort and time the police put in issuing fines to motorists. If they could put such effort into other criminal activities - because we're all criminals aren't we? - then we'd live in a much safer and more pleasant environment.

However.

The crack-down on illegal and thoughtless parking is something that I actually welcome. For us to have a suitable alternative to using our own cars, then public transport has to appeal through the likes of Bus Lanes (and other incentives). If buses can't get through due to someone who, unwittingly or otherwise has left their vehicle in the bus lane, then IMHO that person should be hit in the pocket. One thoughtless motorist (I nearly wrote moron there...) can have a knock-on effect for all other road-users.

That's not to say that the incident regarding your son and the wrongly inserted badge is likely to inspire the motorist to help the authorities and police. That kind of jobsworthiness is the kind of thing that makes us view such bodies with utter contempt!

Also, and finally, any comments that fines are not a money-making device are unlikely to hold sway with motorists. If that's the case, then I look forward to Sheffield's sorry roads being at long last improved. By that I don't mean speed-humps and chicanes; I mean filling in the billion or so holes.

All I can say is I have never had a parking ticket and that is because i dont park illegally!!!

If these wardens are so hated the best way to get rid of them is to park legally and then there will be no job for them to do!

I agree there are times when parking illegally cant be helped (disabilities etc) but as you said the ticket was withdrawn so they got it right in the end.

Originally posted by louise170419
im writing in utter disgust with sheffield city council there was an articule in the star about parking in sheffield it turns out there is now 32 yes 32 parking attendants and they have wrote out 2,800 ticket between april and may that reaps the council a grand total of £168,000 at a rate of £28,000 per week sheffield council insists its blitz on parking isnt a money making exercise but a effort 2 keep traffic flowing that 2 me smells like bull sh**e . as i often seen a parking services van parked up on city road giving out tickets 2 residents who resides on city road and at 8am cum on wake up and smell the coffee i recently was a victim of parking ive a disable child who was having a hypo on me so i put my blue badge in and low and behold receive a ticket because i had put it the wrong way round but i was 1 of the lucky 1s and got the ticket with held i am sick to the back teeth which i suppose most motorists r as we r easy pickings 4 wardens as well as the police we just make up the annual paid for all the fat cats who sit at they desks all day dreaming up more ways 2 hit us when the police should b out arresting the criminals who mug and attack people not motorists for a back light out or sumthing similar


I've actually taken to carrying the camera around with me for when I see a Kier/SCC van/employee parking illegally, I'm that sick of them taking the proverbial!

The problem seems to be that people think they are so important, or so busy that they can park illegally because "they are just nipping to the ....". It is really only a case or looking for a parking place and being prepared to walk a bit.

Originally posted by Ousetunes
Well Louise, I understand your point. As a motorist I too am sick at the effort and time the police put in issuing fines to motorists. If they could put such effort into other criminal activities - because we're all criminals aren't we? - then we'd live in a much safer and more pleasant environment.
If you had read the OP, and the first response properly you would have realised that it has nothing to do with the Police any more.

well done sheffield council perhaps now we can all get to the shops or drive through the city without the streets being blocked.
unfortunately as the police & wardens operate in seperate & specififc areas of criminality they really shouldn't be doing other peoples jobs.i do think that issuing parking tickets is a bit of a lowly occupation for the police.particularly when u compare what they are actually trained to do.

Originally posted by Tony
If you had read the OP, and the first response properly you would have realised that it has nothing to do with the Police any more.

Correct, I appreciate that. But some of my comments were based on having watched the programme Traffic Cops, last night featuring (or should that be starring?) the Cheshire police force.

Don't they love their jobs? And that young guy sounded so like Michael Owen.

I know he's not happy at Real Madrid, but I didn't think the police paid them kind of wages.

You are right Tony, that the police are beginning to hand over traffic-related matters to local authorities and private businesses. But I doubt they'll relinquish their jobs manning the motorways. They'd lose out on appearance royalties, perhaps?

Originally posted by Ousetunes
Correct, I appreciate that. But some of my comments were based on having watched the programme Traffic Cops, last night featuring (or should that be starring?) the Cheshire police force.



I watched this also and thought the unmarked BMW was a fantastic idea! I'd love to see (or not!) them in and around Sheffield!

Did you not see the previous series that was based in sheffield?

Originally posted by sheffbag
Did you not see the previous series that was based in sheffield?

No i always seemed to be working or busy when it was on. Does Sheffield have unmarked BMW's as well?

Originally posted by Ousetunes
But I doubt they'll relinquish their jobs manning the motorways. They'd lose out on appearance royalties, perhaps?
Hehe... Now THAT made me smile. :thumbsup:

Originally posted by Ousetunes
You are right Tony, that the police are beginning to hand over traffic-related matters to local authorities and private businesses. But I doubt they'll relinquish their jobs manning the motorways. They'd lose out on appearance royalties, perhaps?

I've heard that the Highways Agency are to be given authority over the motorways. I think this was in the news a few months ago

isnt it funny they are doing a clampdown on parking apparently yet whenever we go into town there are cars parked in the motorcyle bays sometimes making it impossible to park yet no sign of wardens :confused:

Err, don't park illegally and you won't get a parking ticket - it isn't that difficult to understand.

The more tickets they hand out then the more officers they will be able to employ as the council gets to keep the money.
All in all this is a good thing,motorists have been breaking the law for far to long in this city.:clap:

I welcome the new traffic wardens around here. They have been ticketing the cars illegally parked on our street, and now it is getting easier for us residents to park within walking distance of our homes. I actually rang and reported some cars parked without permits, and they got ticketed. :thumbsup:

Originally posted by Dug
Err, don't park illegally and you won't get a parking ticket - it isn't that difficult to understand.

It is for some people :roll:

Originally posted by rudedude1979
Does Sheffield have unmarked BMW's as well?
I was driving up the M18 some time ago when I spotted a silver Merc in my rearview. I was in it's way as it approached, but there's a limit to how fast one should be travelling at (and I'd already passed that :suspect: )

I could also see a second one behind it, although the first was now inspecting the contents of my boot :mad:

When I was able to pull in I found I was also holding up a blue Volvo estate with far too many aerials that was quietly following behind :thumbsup:

If you think you're being followed by an unmarked car, look out for the video camera attached to the front windscreen and, yes, the multitude of aerials.

I have a cunning plan to deprive the council of money. I'm not going to park illegally! That'll show them. If everybody followed this plan then the wardens would run out of people to who they could issue tickets, they'd all lose their jobs and we could go back to parking illegally.

I also welcome the clamp down on those parking illegaly in the city centre. I'm one of those who sits in the right lane whilst everyone whips down the bus lane and who parks where i should!

So i back the council in their efforts. Although when i read that they do this to keep the city moving and free the bus lanes, i just never actually see buses use these lanes!!

Although talking very honestly here, i am one who moans about SYP (or camera people) targeting speeding motorists so i am trying to figure out why i support one and not the other :confused: lol

Or we could go one step further, Max :suspect:

Every body leave their car at home next thursday.... nobody take a car into town at all.... that'll scare 'em!!

Originally posted by youwhatref
Although talking very honestly here, i am one who moans about SYP (or camera people) targeting speeding motorists so i am trying to figure out why i support one and not the other :confused: lol
Let us know when the light comes on :thumbsup:

If you park legally you dont get a ticket seems quite simple to me. If you get caught risking going into a shop for five minutes you must just accept it but I personally would pay the fifteen minute meter charge rather than 30 quid

Thank you Strix :thumbsup:

The problem is that the parking attendants are working for a business, the sole aim of which is to make money.

When the Police / Traffic Wardens were doing the job, there was always the Officers Discretion available to them. It may never or rarely get used, however the possibilty was there. Now of course that is no longer the case. The wardens will be paid / measured against how many tickets are issued. This was never the case with Police / Traffic wardens.

Likewise with speeding and other motoring offences, the Police DONT get the money, they are not a money making organisiation. ALL the money goes to the Government. (with the exception of a small proportion of speed camera funds, that go to replace / repair equipment). Likewise the Officers involved arent on productivity bonus or quotas, and therefore makes no difference if they prosecute one or one hundred people in a shift.

Private Parking attendants and sooner or later private motorway patrols may be a fact of life, but the fact is it is Policing on the cheap, and Policing as a business. If the London experience is anything to go by, it will soon be rife with dishonesty, sharp practices, and downright criminality. We the public will have little recourse with these "businesses".

Its a brave new world...!

Originally posted by morris1
The problem is that the parking attendants are working for a business, the sole aim of which is to make money.


Do you know something that I don't?

As far as I know these attendants are employees of Sheffield City Council.

Originally posted by louise170419
the police should b out arresting the criminals who mug and attack people

I agree! Far better for the police to be doing this sort of activity than being deployed issuing parking tickets.

Now that parking offences have been de-criminalised, the police can get on with the job we want them to do.

I have been repeatedly complaining to the police about dangerous, illegal parking outside some school gates. The police keep telling me that they don't have the resources to keep checking this problem, and that they get loads of calls from different schools about the same problem.

I have received assurances from the council that school gates will be checked by the new parking attendants, where problems are notified to them. The price of parking on double yellow lines and similar offences - and thus risking a child's life - might now be a fine. Maybe that will cure these inconsiderate drivers.

Can I just add another message in support of the clampdown - and I hope it reaches the suburbs, where parking on top of junctions is absolutely rife. I am sick of edging out nervously, unable to see a thing, because some tw@t (usually in a huge 4x4) thinks they can park at a junction because it doesn't have double yellows.

[mbatey]

Do you know something that I don't?

The attendants may well be employed by the council at the moment: However...

If you look at this, then you will see that the whole venuture is indeed run as a business.. http://www.sheffield.gov.uk/index.asp?pgid=18808&mtype=print

and if you read do, it will tel you that "outsourcing" is not recommended.
However with firms like Excell Parking (based in Sheffield) already nibbling away, how long before they make a bid for the whole city? http://www.excelparking.co.uk/client_list2.htm

Guess the moral of the story is... make sure you park properly, theres a whole industry out there waiting for you to do otherwise.

I hope the parking attendants come up to Stannington soon. There's a perfectly good car park opposite the shops for which there is a petition going round to ask the council not to sell it off for flats.

The council have pledged to come and do a survey of the car park to see how much use it gets. So what do the intelligensia do? They park on the double yellow lines outside the shops but within 50 feet of the car park.

So come on parkies, slap some tickets on so we don't lose the car park.

My twopennorth......Don't park illegally and you can't get caught. Don't break the speed limits and you can't get caught.

I really don't understand why people have so much difficulty accepting the concept. In my experience, if there are genuinely mitigating circumstances the council (as it is at the moment) are pretty good.

I received a parking ticket which said 'the correct ticket was not displayed' and I wrote back with the ticket saying 'I beg to differ - the correct ticket was displayed but I do accept that it was displayed face down.' :rolleyes:

I had a nice letter back saying, Fair dos, and letting me off :thumbsup:

Of course the wonderful thing about the new parking enforcement vans that scuttle up and down Woodseats High Street nicking illegal parkers is the utter ignorance of irony their drivers display. How I laughed the other day to see a meaty warden ticket a car in the bus lane, then lumber back to her van, which she had parked right in front of the offender in, erm, the bus lane.

This isn't a 'one law for them' rant as it happens. Oh no, it's much more optimistic than that. Personally I'm looking forward to the time when the madness of total deregulation takes hold, and we'll be treated to the sight of rival parking enforcement companies nicking each others' vehicles. It'll be worth wandering down to watch the mayhem of a morning then... In fact at that point I might put together a seminar on recognising a legal parking space, and sell it to the parking companies. Does anybody know the Latin for 'while dog eats dog we pussycats prosper'? That's my new motto, that is.

Quote....

"Policy Issues

The Council will:

... consider representations whether formal or informal on the basis of :

Ø not to press for payment when a certified serious medical condition or lapse in memory occasioned by recent domestic trauma recommend withdrawal of the charge on compassionate grounds. "

So if you're nabbed on the way to or from Granny's funeral you might get a dispensation :D

I'd consider myself a wreckless, abusive, out of control idiot on the roads yet I avioid parking tickets. The police simply cannot cath me as I thrash through the gears in my fireapple red Corvette. I'm beeping the horn causing near crashes a genuinely dangerous driver!

I think you'll find it's something like, "As canum chompitus canum, verita felinum prosperis". 3 years doing Latin and that's the best I can come up with...what a wasted education.

That's better than I could do, despite four years at a posh school and five years of Literature at university.

However, thanks to the glories of the Interweb I have come up with the following: Procedo cattus quando canis essum canis.

Marvellous!

I always wondered by what right we are charged for parking on our own public roads and streets.

Don't suppose anyone wants to mount a legal challenge...?

Jerry

Just don't mount the pavement while you're at it... you know the consequences!

Originally posted by Jerry
I always wondered by what right we are charged for parking on our own public roads and streets.

Don't suppose anyone wants to mount a legal challenge...?

Jerry

I guess it's the same sort of principle as it's not an offence to be drunk within the privacy of one's own home but it is (if one's disorderly too lol) on the street.

A community thing? Safety and courtesy, that sort of concept, I suppose...... laws made to protect the minority from the (bad) behaviour of the minority...

Ok forget that one. I was still on the speeding and parking ticket thread from this morning. OOPS!

:blush: :blush:

OH!!! It IS the parking ticket and speeding thread from this morning. So why are you talking about having to pay to park on our streets? Surely we're talking about being fined for parking illegally?

:confused:

:D

Can someone define exactly what is meant by "parking". IE does 'parking' on double yellows for 5 mins and leaving someone in the car count as being 'parked;, as the car is occupied? Does doing the same but with no one in the car when making a delivery in town, and displaying hazards with no one in the car also count?

Originally posted by goldenfleece
Can someone define exactly what is meant by "parking". IE does 'parking' on double yellows for 5 mins and leaving someone in the car count as being 'parked;, as the car is occupied? Does doing the same but with no one in the car when making a delivery in town, and displaying hazards with no one in the car also count?

why would any of them not count. the car is stopped somewhere it shouldn't be, obstructing the traffic.

Looks like parking fees and fines are something of a bonanza for local authorities, - from the 'Times' today...

"Total income from parking for English councils in 2003-04 was £1.09 billion, government figures obtained by the Liberal Democrats showed. This represented a 71 per cent increase on the £638.5 million parking income figure for 1997-98, when the Labour Government first came to power."

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-1657924,00.html

Wonder what they are doing with all this extra cash ? :suspect:

Originally posted by goldenfleece
Can someone define exactly what is meant by "parking".

I'v always understood it meant the driver leaving the vehicle. Pretty sure you woudn't get done if you stopped because you were having a coughing fit, or to re-secure a dodgy load etc.

Exemptions are detailed in the Appendix 2 here...

http://www.sheffield.gov.uk/index.asp?pgid=18808&mtype=print

If the parking wardens were actually doing a decent honest job, then i'd have no problem with them....

as it stands i think that they are c**ts !

as i have seen them around the devonshire quarter issuing tickets before 8AM whilst free parking is in effect,

also issuing tickets to cars parked on roads where absolutely no parking restrictions apply
- bottom of cavendish st outside the school before the tossers from the council decided to make the whole street double yellows....

this is the sort of behaviour that really antagonises many of us and makes us hate those yellow jacket wearing bleeders so much...

and now we have private companies like Excel Parking - who charge £70 for a ticket - thats ridiculous.