Shirley woman gets ticket for taking too long to unload car
by Aline Nassif
aline.nassif@essnmedia.co.uk
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TICKET TROUBLES: Wendy Perry with her penalty charge notice
Croydon Council has been accused of "making up rules as they go along" after a traffic warden slapped the Advertiser's papergirl with a £120 fine for "inactivity".
Wendy Perry parked legitimately in a 30-minute unloading bay in College Road, only to return 19 minutes later to find a parking attendant signing off the ticket last Saturday morning.
Her crime? Failing to demonstrate "unloading activity" within the 10 minutes the hawk-eyed warden was monitoring her car.
"I couldn't believe my eyes," Wendy said. "I've been using this bay on and off for the past 12 years to make my deliveries to nearby George Street and it takes me at least four minutes to get to my first shop.
"It's ludicrous to imagine I'd run back every 10 minutes to prove I was doing my job."
The sign in the road simply says unloading.
Wendy, of Kempton Walk, Shirley, added: "That's what I was doing – I even pushed the papers in a trolley for good measure.
"This is another tactic to get money out of law-abiding drivers. Why couldn't the traffic warden use his common sense?"
Husband Chris called the council on the same day and, Wendy says, he was assured the ticket would be revoked on appeal.
But the 50-year-old merchandiser believes others will not bother contesting a similar fine.
She said: "Either the council clearly notifies drivers about their 10 minute observation rule or they stop ordering their wardens to abide by it."
A council spokesman defended the issuing of the fine.
He said: "If the vehicle has been parked for longer than 10 minutes with no sign of loading then we would look at issuing a ticket based on observation.
"We enforce this policy to ensure that all loading bays are used in the correct manner and to ensure they are free for deliveries."
16 Comments
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by Mr.Angry, Purley
Thursday, August 13 2009, 11:58AM
“PW,s are the curse of civilised society and should be removed to save Council Tax money.”
by Peter, Ex-Croydon
Monday, August 10 2009, 5:35PM
“
The comment by Peter goes a long way to convince me that most human beings have long left the Croydon area, I'd suggest that anyone with a shred of humanity left gets out before the zombies consume your brains forever, you've been warned, its a dead zone, patroled by the weird and evil.”
by peteq, Ex-Croydon
Monday, August 10 2009, 5:30PM
“The comment by Peter goes a lonf way to convince me that most human beings have long left the Croydon area, I'd suggest that anyone with a shred of humanity left gets out before the zombies consume your brains forever, you've been warned, its a dead zone, patroled by the weird and evil.”
by jackie, old coulsdon
Monday, August 10 2009, 7:06AM
“Having just returned from staying in deepest Essex in an area where there are NO parking restrictions and jobsworths lookingf over your shoulder this seems utterly laughable. So relaxing to drive to where you are going to, choose where you are parking,park,get out of car,think about what you are doing instead of having a clock ticking away the whole time.
(strangely enough it's how things USED to be here countrywide).”
by beth, redhill
Monday, August 10 2009, 6:22AM
“not all loading bays are for goods vehicles some are for cars aswell so you all seem to not really know about road signs but maybe thats because you all done your driving tests before the theory test came out. Taking papers out of a car is classed as unloading in my book and good luck to you wendy if the croydon advertiser paid for your ticket or the council didnt make you pay it plenty of other people get away with it.”
by Mr.Angry, Purley
Sunday, August 09 2009, 9:00PM
“My favourite imaginary game with PW,s is HANGMAN!”
by Peter, Wallington
Sunday, August 09 2009, 8:43PM
“ML I have found an article that refers to both these caess and more and it seems a bit like Mr Loophole that gets celebrities off speeding tickets because the policeman wasn't wearing a tie, or some other wishy washy excuse.”
by ML, Croydon
Sunday, August 09 2009, 8:32PM
“Peter, you are quite incorrect.
There is plenty of case law to show that loading bays are NOT reserved for lorries etc, and that a car used for loading/unloading purposes is in fact allowed to use loading bays (Sprake v Tester).
There is also case law to confirm that people in the process of collecting/delivering can be deemed to be loading/unloading (Slynn J in Richards - v - McKnight and others).
It would seem furthermore that Croydon Council themselves do not even know what their own "observation period" is, as they recently gave me a ticket with an observation of 5 mns, yet they maintain in the article that it is 10 mns! :-P”
by Peter, Wallington
Sunday, August 09 2009, 9:09AM
“Brian, PLG stands for Private (cars) AND Light Goods (Vans up to 3.5T).
Take a look at the Highway Code and you will see that there will be an accompanyng sign which states the times and whether or not it is for Goods Vehicles only. As we can see from the photo is IS for Goods Vehicles only so Wendy was not allowed to park there.
And one final point. Had she parked there in a van she could still have got a ticket, as she was not technically unloading. She was going about her business of delivering newspapers, and not unloading.”
by Brian Geekie, Addington
Saturday, August 08 2009, 11:23PM
“with reference to the comment on the unloading area being for goods vehicles.PLG as written on a tax disc means PRIVATE LIGHT GOODS.”