There was report on the BBC news last week about car parking:-
Shoppers in a mid Wales town have welcomed a temporary reprieve in parking charges after meters were damaged.
Some pay and display machines at locations across Cardigan, Ceredigion have been out of order since early June after they were smashed by vandals.
Traders claim business has boomed in their absence, with one business reporting a 30% rise.
I have listened to interviews with traders and car owners alike and it seems very clear that the temporary free parking situation has been a boon for the town - both in terms of business and in relation to the feel good factor experienced by car owners and shoppers And yet - the council are busily repairing or replacing their vandalised meters and pay stations. They obviously refuse to learn lessons from it all. Squeezing money from motorists has become an obsession with short-sighted and rather vindictive local councils.
Long term readers of this blog will recall that one of my flights of fancy was the development of a fiction about parking enforcement officers. Essentially, I kidnapped a dozen of them, kept them in our underhouse area and later had them shipped to Afghanistan where they were obliged to join The Taliban. Of course, it was a fiction that I played for laughs but underneath it all was a genuine animosity towards the whole business of paying hard-earned money to park cars. In my life I have visited over fifty countries and hundreds of cities and I swear that the most stringent, motorist-squeezing parking regimes are to be found here on the Island of Britain itself.
For those who missed my parking enforcement officer blogposts back in 2010, here they are in sequence:-
For those who missed my parking enforcement officer blogposts back in 2010, here they are in sequence:-
Chapter 1 - Stormtroopers
Chapter 2 - Success
Chapter 3 - "Star"
Chapter 4 - Stanage
Chapter 5 - Jackpot
Chapter 6 - Escape
Chapter 7 - Nine
Chapter 8 - Bingo
Chapter 9 - Deportation
Chapter 10 - Postcard
Chapter 11 - Update
What does a town government do with the money they get from parking fees and parking tickets? Probably they pay to buy and maintain the machinery and hire people to enforce their rules. The only instance I can think of where a person would park on the street and take up a space all day long is if they worked nearby and their employer's business had insufficient offstreet parking. So legislate that, instead, and leave the shoppers alone.
ReplyDeleteHear! Hear! I would go so far as to wager that the parking fees don't even cover all the wages, bureaucracy, vehicles, maintenance etc..
DeleteRegardless of the arguments for or against car parking charges I dislike them as much as anyone but when I'm in Glasgow the cheapest parking I can find is Council parking. My average cost in a private multi-storey car park is £12 for a morning's shopping. Overall in England (I think the figure is just for England) Councils subsidise their annual income by about £600million profit from parking charges.
DeleteFortunately here on Tamborine Mountain where I live there are no parking meters and no car parking charges at the supermarket's car park. In the major cities, of course, it's a totally different story, and a lot of the large shopping centres are now charging shoppers for using their car parking facilities with strict time codes applied. Another reason, I guess, why I love to live in the smaller, village-like areas. Anyway, I hate large shopping centres and never frequent them.
ReplyDeleteThe parking enforcement officers are only doing their job. If they didn't, they'd get sacked. Perhaps it the councillors, those who set the rules you should be imprisoning and sending to Afghanistan. :)
Yes Lee, councillors are next on my list - after Roman Catholic priests and TV chefs. Nobody HAS to be a parking enforcement officer so I have no misgivings about persecuting them.
DeleteThe priests would be the top of my list...nobody has to be a priest...and priests don't have to be paedophiles...nobody should be...and being a priest gives them no right to protect their sordid mates!
DeleteAs for TV chefs...why you have them on the chopping blocks bewilders me. Their capers don't deserve to be put through the grinder so much by you. Your scalding criticism of them tends to grate on me a little. I find myself simmering, and I'm reduced to a spot of grease!
Shuck! Stop carving them up. They show the madding hordes, many of whom are ignorant to a basic element of living how to cook; they introduce the uninformed to some wonderful fresh produce...and the many varied ways said produce can be used.
I'm kneading to understand why you consider them to be such crumbs. I blanch at your negative feelings towards chefs...I'm crushed!
The huge parkades that are built really bug me. It seems like such a waste and then they soak you for parking.
ReplyDeleteI had to look up the word "parkade" Red. In England we use the term "Multi-storey car park" which is a bit of a mouthful.
DeleteCouncils in our marvellous city claim parking fines and restrictions are to ensure a turn over allowing more shoppers to spend money - the fact that the nearest shops might be two kilometers away doesn't make the parking fines any less than those right along side the shopping centre. A nearby council was set to earn more than $12 million dollars in revenue a couple of years back. Of course not everyone pays and the council has ways and means of catching up with those people too.
ReplyDeleteMs Soup
There is so much double-talk as councils justify their parking fees and fines. Forget the Islamic State, it is these parking terrorists we should be combating, changing the vindictive attitude to motorists and welcoming them into our towns and cities with plenty of free parking. . .
DeleteYP, I think you wouldn't enjoy driving near Dallas, Texas, where they charge you for using the freeways, too.
ReplyDeleteDallas must be owned by The French - they have toll roads too.
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ReplyDelete