Mysterious Blue VAN-gate : My attempt at doing something about it

Hi all, 

I posted to Dick's thread about parking previously about this, and rather than hijack that further, am posting a copy of the email i've just sent to Haringey council about the 'mystery of the Blue Van'...

I am aware this all seems possible overkill for one van- but honestly cycling past it has caused some hair raising incidents and I just think it's causing disproportionate inconvenience to every road user going through the junction. 

Apart from that I'm genuinely mystified as to how a van with not even a parking permit initially(as far as I can tell) can manage to evade the amorous advances of our dedicated parking wardens for such a long time..

Please can anyone forward me Emina's email - i just guessed & it bounced back? (or she might see this on here I guess)- I wanted to send it to her as she seems to be posting lots of items to do with roads and I thought would be relevant. Also, does anyone know any other email this should go to ? I can't seem to see anything on the council website that fits this. Its not a parking fine or abandoned vehicle so I don't think parking quite covers it...Thoughts?

finally- since i've already wasted hours of time I don't have on this- i'm not going to work out how to blot out the registration on the photographs i sent with my email over various dates so i can post them all here. I've included a couple for illustration where it's not visible. 

EMAIL:

Dear Claire and Emina, 

I wonder if you can finally (once and for all) sort out the mystery of why a blue van has been allowed to persistently park on the Green Lanes right in front of the bus stop just before the junction with Frobisher Rd & Alfoxton ave causing both Traffic disruption and safety issues? (just by the DOGTAS store). 

I have noticed this happening for more more than a year- I think certainly several years. I first became aware of it by walking past. I have no personal connection or grudge with the shopkeeper- simply an awareness that this is clearly both a hazard and inconvenience to a surprising number of people so I am at a loss to know how it has continued.

Rather than just complain I can report that I have:

*spoken to a traffic warden who walked past just as I happened to be there- his response was to shrug and walk away despite the fact the van was very clearly not loading at the time.

*asked the shop owner why he parks there & say that I think it’s a hazard(nicely i promise). answer - flap hands, say ‘loading loading’ and walk away.

*witnessed the shop owner running out to open the van doors when a warden passed by (it was empty anyway)

*previously asked David Schmidt to follow this up, although he subsequently lost his position so i guess this went astray.

*walked past on too many occasions to note in the morning and afternoon of the same day and seen the van parked up in exactly the same position with the doors open and no activity whatsoever going on.

*never witnessed the van actually being loaded or unloaded. (sometimes the shop owner puts empty boxes in it though!)

*wondered why on earth if the van is genuinely needed for loading to the shop, it isn’t parked onto the dropped curb which is visible in photogaph 3 from March last year and then moved elsewhere afterwards just as all the other shop owners in that parade of shops must need to do?

I can fully understand the need of a business owner to load and unload, however this vehicle is blatantly parked up for hours at a time and most often empty(actually I have never witnessed it full of anything other than empty boxes) and very clearly *NOT* loading. 

Please see below some photographs. Some taken in March last year, and some just now in January 2015. (I used to have many other photographs at other times but I lost heart as had no idea what to do with them so deleted loads- I started taking them as I wondered if it really was there as often as I imagined- answer: Yes)

At times i have walked past and observed 

1) pedestrians moving out into the oncoming traffic using the van as ‘cover’ after getting off the bus- basically they are encouraged to do so rather than walk the few paces to the newly installed crossing. (see picture 2 below)

2) cyclists being forced to pull out at both quiet times (when cars often travel fast on this section of road) and busy times (when there is not much space and it’s difficult to get cars to give up road for them) and in both instances cars being taken by surprise at this. 

3) buses being both delayed by the need to pull out from their lane into the RH lane AND the disruption to other traffic of this occurring. 

4) Cars being ‘caught by surprise’ at a stationery vehicle in a lane of moving traffic and also having to pull out to the R, which is particularly a problem because they are often in the LH lane in the first place with the intention of turning left at the junction just a few meters ahead of the Van.(which means they then effectively end up crossing over to turn left from the RH lane at the lights.

Having thought it was just me who was worried about this - I happened to see that in fact it has also been mentioned in a thread on Haringey online, where- lo and behold, various other residents have had identical experiences of asking wardens about the van and being ignored. please see this link here: http://www.harringayonline.com/forum/topics/parking-appeals?xg_source=activity&id=844301%3ATopic%3A712583&page=2#comments

So please may I have an answer to these questions:

1) Since it is a busy junction and there is a bus stop there already and clearly it’s a hazard for vehicles to park there- why would there not be double yellow lines between the bus stop and the lights? Why would it ever be ok for the van to block the road at such a busy point when there are clear safety and traffic flow issues?

2) why do wardens never ticket this vehicle?

3) Can the owner load using the dropped curb surface if needed?

4) I noticed in the past that the Van did not even have a local parking permit  and it was *still* not ticketed (please see photos from march showing nothing but a tax disc on the windscreen) but in recent photos there does appear to be one so that has clearly changed. Why is the van still not moved away after loading then? I’m sure all the shopkeepers on that parade of shops would love to park outside - this is the only one that does? 

5) Why don’t wardens wait to see if they actually are loading?  If a friend or tradesperson comes to visit my house and a warden is in the street- they will often wait to see if they can give a ticket- and i have to rush about finding permits and getting outside to be certain this won’t happen. It’s very curious that the wardens never seem to wait to observe whether this particular van is loading or not! (i’ve often seen them walk straight past)

Ps: since I discovered the interest of other residents in this issue, I will post this email to HOL also as i’m keen to do something to feedback rather than just complain online. (but obviously not pictures showing registration details)

Kind Regards

Rachael

March 2014 Photographs: