I generally support Traffic Wardens. They, after all, are only doing their job by enforcing parking regulations (which are effectively a contract between the owners of the car park and the car). However, sometimes they deserve the nasty remarks!

I was browsing through the BBC Website when I came across this story. I couldn’t believe what I was reading! Imagine, issuing a Fixed Penalty Notice (FPN) for displaying a ticket up-side down! It just doesn’t make any sense. Okay, it requires a tin little bit of extra work for the warden to read, but it is not worthy of a FPN.

The response of the Council (who own and run the car park in question) is just beggar’s belief! Correctly Served? Rubbish! The car park regulations do probably state, as quoted, that a valid ticket must be clearly displayed within the vehicle. However, I struggle to see how this can be interpreted to mean it must be the correct way up! To my mind if the ticket is on show and it is possible to read it (upside down or not) and it is inside the vehicle then that meets all the requirements set down by the council. I doubt there is a court in the land that would disagree with that and agree with the council! If the Council wish the ticket to be displayed the correct way up then the can, but should make the explicit in the terms and conditions of use and not rely on a stretch of an interpretation.

This just sounds to me either like the council just want an extra £35 or they just didn’t want to admit that their parking wardens had made a mistake (and thus opened them up to further criticism about being cowboys). On the other hand, it could be a mixture of both (or am I just being cynical here?)

It’s ridiculous decisions by Traffic Wardens like this one and then backing from the local council responsible that gives Traffic Wardens a bad name.

Anyway, so as to avoid going off on a tangent I’ll end this one here!

• Rant