In a week when my car was unceremoniously seriously injured by a motorist (thanks, Mr Farmer) who blamed me (the oncoming traffic) after he thought it’d be ok to execute a right turn across the carriageway from a stationary, parked position without indication or regard for oncoming traffic, I thought things couldn’t get much worse. So there I was, unloading my hire car in the loading bay in front of the Courtlands Hotel in Hove, for a breakfast business meeting, thinking “it’d be just my luck to be ticketed in a loading bay, but at least I’m loading”… only to return to the car at 8:25am in the middle of loading again to see a traffic warden – sorry, Civil Enforcement Officer – issuing a parking ticket – sorry, Penalty Charge Notice (PCN). I’ve had experience of these before, of course, and rarely as a result of illegal parking – see “One Hour’s Parking for the Price of Two” for the last piece of Brighton & Hove City Council idiocy.
This particular traffic warden (number 685 – from his “signature” he’s called Mr Squiggle) seemed to be taking far too much pleasure from the mere routine issue of a piece of bureaucratic paperwork, as do many of them. It’s important to realise that Brighton & Hove City Council’s Civil Enforcement Officers – please let’s just call them traffic wardens for sanity’s sake – are not given direct incentives or enticements to issue tickets, which might encourage them to issue more and more marginal tickets in order to achieve their personal or set targets. No, that would just be good old plain wrong. However according to Brighton & Hove City Council staff, absolutely nothing is done to prevent staff from maintaining private bets and sweepstakes which might engender an undue sense of competition between traffic wardens, and according to at least one member of staff these are rife. Such activities in other sectors would be regarded as acts of gross professional misconduct, but the parking business is rather different. In addition, there is strong first-hand evidence to suggest that the Council sets targets for parking revenues, and that traffic wardens who are underperforming face disciplinary action and loss of employment. OK, so scratch my “no direct incentives or enticements” statement… I think you can safely say that there are incredibly strong incentives for staff to issue as many parking tickets as possible.
Of course the system is built with no flexibility – or indeed politeness. Once you’ve been issued with a ticket, the only ways out are through the system and out the other side – either by written appeal, paying the penalty, or fighting bailiffs (which the Council parking staff love to threaten you with) & going to court. So once that ticket is printed out from the proudly wielded little electronic device the traffic wardens all carry, it has already cost you time and money. Since this ticket was issued wrongly, I should be charging for my time spent on the matter by invoicing the Council and chasing for the debt – but there’s no “sorry we cocked up” latitude built into the system either. Parking has been set in legislation as a legalised racket which Councils and private firms can exploit to their hearts’ content.
And all the little hitlers can go on having fun and making money at our expense – twice – because while we pay with our Council Tax for their perversely pleasurable little betting games, we also pay for the entire machine to grind away raking in our parking fines too. What an utter waste of time, money and resources. Please, Mr Osborne, how about we cut the parking bureaucracy first?
See also Testing the Parking Tribunal and Parking Tribunal Victory over Brighton & Hove City Council
20th January 2011 at 4:49 pm
I just found your site, (sight) Mr Silver, from a trawl of the inter-rant for ‘Brighton Bad Drivers’. This after discovering, since I moved to this town last year, that Brighton is the only connurbation in the world to employ blind mini-cab drivers. I hate to generalise, but in the four months I’ve lived here, I’ve had near misses with Brighton’s Finest three days out of every five that I cycle. No matter. The partially sighted and quarter-witted need work, and it’s best if they are concentrated in one place. Not all of them are mad, of course, many of them can spot a bicycle at 30 cms, but, but; I’m now paranoid at the sight of turquoise and white cars.
I’ve noticed that there is something of an anarchist air in Brighton. People seem to do what they want, then blame somebody else when it goes wrong. There was a bus driver in the Argus this week, asking people not to walk out in front of buses. They’ll ignore him of course, if they walk out in front of buses, they won’t be afraid of mere cyclists. And they are not. I could go on, but I won’t.
There’s also something of an animal problem here. A huge unfettered black dog called ‘Boris’ reared up and hauled me off my bike by my leg on the undercliffe prom at Rotters, last week. Fearing it would go for my throat as I lay supine under the the remains of my front wheel, I kicked it in the mouth. It backed off, not so the owner, who threatened to break my legs. I did point out the council notice on the promenade about dogs being kept on leads, but to no avail. Note to self: avoid men with Broadmoor haircuts, no front teeth, and huge dogs. It’s difficult enough dodging the faeces on the undercliffe prom, but I’ll try harder. ‘Boris’ if your owner is reading this, please have him humanly destroyed. I’ll pay. Thank you.
The sea air is nice here. Years ago I lived up the coast a bit, and would cycle to jolly old Rotters, over the cliffs to Telscombe to watch the Marina being built. Brighton was quite pleasant then, quiet, amiable, safe, and clean. Today, even Private Eye refers to the place as ‘Skid Row-on-Sea. It’s time to leave, I think. Here in Hove, there are problems with young men in black BMW saloons cruising around at midnight selling ‘stimulants’. It’s a bit creepy and I don’t go out much after dark now, after I had my bag snatched.
Then there’s the farce over the West Pier. What other town would leave five thousand tons of fire-ravaged steel in the bay to repel tourists? Although the pier wasn’t much wanted in 1975 when it was declared unsafe and closed down. No-one could be bothered to fix it. How very Brightonian!
Brighton is a very odd place now. No country for old folk, I think.
Keep up the good work.
13th February 2011 at 5:42 pm
Sue, I can completely empathise with you as a part-time cyclist myself, and one who has in the past suffered a broken toe as a result of the actions of a Brighton taxi driver. I just can’t quite work out why so few of them actually know their way around the city; on several occasions we’ve had to intervene in the driver’s efforts to navigate, and more than once we’ve actually been asked directions by a taxi driver – which wouldn’t perhaps be such a bad thing if the driver concerned wasn’t driving the taxi we’re actually in.
I think the “anarchist air” of which you speak definitely exists within Brighton but it’s more a sense of individualism which surpasses that of people in other towns. However walking out in front of cars, buses and cycles is more a case of abdication of personal responsibility and is perhaps more symptomatic of a general lack of respect for others which is blighting everything in this country at the moment, from the services provided by local Councils to the way in which people drive.
I love your suggestion re. Boris. I completely agree about blaming the owner rather than the animal. Sadly I also agree about Brighton & Hove being a less pleasant place to live than it used to be. As a true Brightonian by birth, I’ve seen over forty years of Brighton history first hand, and I don’t like much of what I see. The Council is largely responsible – for planning problems which have affected everything from architecture to road traffic congestion – and indeed for the poor standard of our schools and services, which will never do much good for social cohesion. I shall only increase my pressure on this inefficient, corrupt, self-serving, expensive and unhelpful Big Brother until hopefully, one day, its misdemeanours are compensated, its apparatus dismantled, and its services taken over by an entity which actually serves the people of Brighton rather than treating them as an endless, uncomplaining money pot.
16th February 2012 at 9:24 pm
Hi there,
Reading many of the articles above and in particular the article titled – criminal racquet in disguise. I would first of all like to congratulate the gentleman for sharing his experience on loading outside a hotel in Hove.
Parking charges have become a far too common and an increasingly a frustrating issue for residents, local businesses and indeed tourists. Through my time in Brighton I have also watched the detrimental impact of parking charge increases, extensions of zoned pay and display and permit areas, trigger happy parking wardens and more….it simply has to stop!
I urge all readers to share your stories and speak up against the rising parking charges, inconsiderate and frankly disgusting behaviour of local traffic wardens and the revenue raising, profit making parking authorities ruining this much loved city.
As a local business and a passionate resident of Brighton and Hove I have therefore begun a parking and transport facebook page which I hope you will find of interest. Please join and share your experiences on issues regarding parking and transport in Brighton and Hove.
I do hope through this and other avenues we can change the way the way parking and transport issues are handled and indeed make this a more enjoyable and welcoming city.
Jeremy
Brighton resident of Kemptown
7th June 2013 at 8:31 pm
As i for my sins worked in the company ncp/nsl or whatever they are now calling themselves 685 was always a jobsworth guy with a weird lump on his forehead he was one of the big ticketers when i was there and was know to issue tickets non stop legal or not just to keep the bosses off his back was his excuse but he loved it he was hen pecked by an ugly wife and 5 kids when i was there i took the moral high ground and spend the majority of the day on the beach on hiding in the middle of queens park or the cafe in the crypt or the hospital cafe but i had the education and the will not to be a mini hilter stating i’m just following the rules
tim 685 tim 685 tim stop ticketing everyone