The Blue Badge con.

 I write this short article to make others aware of the unscrupulous behaviour of some of the new traffic wardens serving the Brighton and district area. As you are no doubt aware the control of the traffic wardens was shifted from the police to the council a few years ago, and they all work on a new point system, I would call it a commission basic myself, but to reach his or her salary each warden has to amass a certain number of points each month.

The other day we were having lunch at a small restaurant in Ditchling, and as there were double yellow lines right outside the restaurant door, I decided to park there, clearly displaying my blue badges in the front of my car window.

Half an hour later Karen spotted a traffic warden busily taping out all my details onto his ticket machine, and told me that I was about to get a parking ticket, so I struggled to my feet and went over to the front door of the restaurant, and asked the warden if there was a problem, his reply was that I had parked on a double yellow line, but my badges were clearly displayed, I could see them from the restaurant, and pointed this out to the warden, he replied, oh yes, I didn’t see them, they don’t stand out like the old orange ones, well fortunately I had got there in time, and he cancelled the parking ticket there and then, but the blue badge was clearly visible to him as well as everyone else, and all he wanted was to write the ticket an be off as quick as possible, to gain his points, and it really didn’t seem to matter to him one little bit that there was a perfectly valid blue badge in place or not. So beware anyone who parks in an area where this new wave of point scoring wardens march, and guess what, the same scheme is being introduced in Worthing in April 2007.

CORRECTION March 18th 2007

Since writing this article, I have had it pointed out to me by a Parking Attendant employed by Horsham District Council, operating the L.A.P E scheme, that the wardens serving the Horsham area do not operate on a point system at all, and in fact they have to be trained to City and Guilds qualifications. And on the official website it states the following

Will the attendants be paid by results?
No. Parking attendants will receive a basic wage, and there will be no quotas or targets for issuing tickets. They will be trained to be fair but firm. Their job is simply to get drivers to obey parking control measures and issue a PCN where a contravention has taken place.

Also if any members are met by a warden like the one I met, then they should indeed be reported, further more, if any members have any problems regarding parking offences, then a visit the following web site may help:    http://www.parking-appeals.gov.uk/  This is NPAS ( NATIONAL PARKING ADJUDICATION SERVICE ).  They will fight all appeals.  This site also covers all the contravention codes on and off street - approx. 90 codes well worth a visit.
You may also find this helpful http://www.parking-appeals.gov.uk/about/faq.asp 

Many thanks for the advice given.

Robin Stephens