Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
A parking conundrum in Crouch End
My neighbour got a ticket the other day, for parking across two pays on our road, Nelson Road, N8. The only weird thing is: We do not have parking bays. We just have lines. There is ONE random line, and that’s it. That was under his car, and he was told he was across two bays.
He is disputing it, of course, but I am now wondering: How can we get this weird line removed, and why is it there in the first place? We’re now getting a bit paranoid about jobsworth parking wardens giving out parking tickets when there’s no good reason for it. They’re just a pain in the a** to dispute, and no one wants the hassle, even though it’s pretty clear there’s no bay there, see photos.
Here's the one little line in question:
See - no bays!!!
Any suggestions?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by james walsh on
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Anette, every now and again an over zealous parking attendant will get it wrong you just have to appeal. Usually an email is enough for the PCN to be cancelled. I can't see enough in the photos to advise about the bay lines but usually there is good reason for them, mostly to dilineate parking restriictions such as doctor, disabled or loading only bays.
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Permalink Reply by pamish on
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Top left in your first pic is a just visible plate showing the parking restrictions - is there another, different, one in the other section? If not, it would be unfortunate if someone dropped a paint can on this spot.
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Permalink Reply by cara howard on
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Annette, this happened to a friend of mine outside her house on Mayfield Road, in that case, apparently the line signifies the difference between resident permit parking and visitor permit parking. It seems insane to me as you can't pay at a machine so would need a visitor permit from a kindly resident no?
There is a tiny sign and just a line, could be the same daft rule. She had one wheel into the so-called 'visitor' area.
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Permalink Reply by Anette on
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Cara, no mention of a visitor and resident permit divide. No pay and display bays or machines. Nothing.
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That is odd. In Mayfield there is literally just the line too, but if you look carefully at the tiny signs, one says resident one says visitor. I think it's new. Nothing on the road and no bay there either.
I think the council should explain themselves. And fix the crater-like potholes on those roads too.
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@James: "every now and again an over zealous parking attendant will get it wrong you just have to appeal."
This is not acceptable, there should be no opportunites for them to get it wrong. It's a pain having to even spend time on it.
@Pamish: No, there's nothing else there, no bays, nothing, just the sign showing parking restrictions for the road. No bays, no doctors, no loadng bays, nothing, just one poxy line out of nowhere. No reason for that line to even be there.
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Permalink Reply by Alan Stanton on
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Anette, as well as your neighbour disputing his PCN (parking ticket) I suggest that you can help everyone in your road by emailing separately and suggesting that the line marking appears to be wrong, misleading and should be painted over or scabbled off.
Start at the top with Ann Cunningham: ann.Cunningham@haringey.gov.uk.
Also you could check this out with your ward councillors as they may have raised the issue. If they don't know the answer, the excellent Rachel Allison one of the Highgate ward councillors has successfully gone into battle on these sorts of issues in her ward and may be able to advise her LibDem colleagues. Rachel.Allison@haringey.gov.uk
(Tottenham Hale ward councillor)
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Anette i was just pointing out that sometimes people make mistakes and these can be easily rectified no need to jump down my throat like that ?
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I quite agree - "To err is human, to forgive divine", but try telling it to the Council. The policy is: You stray - you pay, without delay or you'll pay double. They don't let you off if, maybe for the first time in your life, you were distracted and accidentally parked in the wrong place; there is no system of warnings for a first or an extremely rare mistake. If the Council demands that motorists be infallible then people will expect the same high standards from the Parking Service.
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In 2008 there was widespread evidence that hundreds of local councils across the country had painted the wrong parking lines on thousands of roads.
As you probably know, Alexander, the London boroughs jointly fund a quango called 'London Councils'. This came up with the shabby proposal that civil servants at the Department for Transport should persuade the then Minister of State for Transport (Rosie Winterton M.P.) to give "temporary authorisation" to the boroughs continuing to flout the DfT regulations for another two years.
Luckily this amnesty on council rule-breaking was rejected. But as you can guess, had it been agreed, it would have been entirely one-sided. Local councils would have escaped their legal obligations - but not drivers.
More progressive councils simply got on with correcting their faulty lines and signs. Haringey, then with a former councillor named Brian Haley in charge of parking, was not among the first to do this. It stubbornly continued in self-serving error. But eventually common sense prevailed. Or perhaps it realised the possible damage, to its finances and reputation, of losing an increasing number of appeals.
Since then, it seems to me there there has been far more resistance among motorists to unlawful highway robbery aimed at making a profit out of a service which is legally supposed to break even.
In Barnet, Cllr Brian Colman boasted that he never knowingly undercharged for parking. And this has now resulted in a Judicial Review. The Barnet Blogger Mr Mustard gives advice about contesting PCNs. Another Blogger Miss Feezance keeps a cloise eye on the appeals lost and (mainly) won by Barnet's motorists.
(Tottenham Hale ward councillor)
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Permalink Reply by Clive Carter on
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Anette, which day of the week did this occur?
I only ask because the Civil Enforcement Officers have targets to meet which may well be on a weekly basis. If the CEO was below-target near the end of the week, they might be tempted to issue a PCN in a dubious case, taking a chance they would get away with it.
The targets are unofficial and they're not called targets, but expectations or "forecasts". But they can face disciplinary action for not meeting forecasts.
The real targets are generally law-abiding members of the public. Parkers are targeted because raising money from them is easy and cost-effective: far easier than say, launching a prosecution for breaches of trading standards.
Not trying to excuse it, only to understand the phenomenon. Although some take the view that targets are a necessary management tool, I see them as tending to cause situations like this that do little except undermine the authority and legitimacy of local government.
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