Parking wardens could cost city jobs
It was interesting to read your article about parking wardens in Hull.
My company sent me to Hull a year ago to supervise a £20 million rebuilding project. My colleague and I have been staying in a nice hotel just off Kingston Square in Hull and we have had nothing but problems with the parking wardens.
On one occasion my front wheel was just touching the white line and I received a parking ticket, which I had to pay before I could even try to get the ticket refunded, which, needless to say, I did not get back.
On another occasion, I was ill and could not go to work, so I went out to the parking meter to get a new ticket as my last ticket was due to expire.
The car park was empty apart from one other car. I had just put my money in the meter and I was stopped by a parking warden and told if a put a new ticket on the car I would get a parking ticket.
I asked why and the warden replied you can only park here two hours in every eight hours. I explained to the warden I was ill and that there was at least 25 empty spaces, which, after speaking to the receptionist in the hotel, these space are almost always empty unless there is something going on at the theatre.
So I got into my car and drove around Hull until I found an area I could park my car.
Just last week I came out of my hotel after finishing my breakfast to find a parking warden trying to give me a ticket.
My ticket was still valid but because the windscreen had frozen overnight and the parking warden could not see the ticket, the warden was going to issue me with a ticket.
What are we supposed to do, get up early before the parking wardens come around and defrost all the windows on the cars?
I agree that some people do blatantly park without paying or park where they are not supposed to and rightly they do deserve a ticket, but a bit of common sense and leeway would help sometimes, parking wardens.
My company was planning to bring more work and jobs to the nice city of Hull, but I have spoken to them about the problems we are having parking in the city and they are seriously considering taking the work elsewhere.
G Payne, address supplied.
2 Comments
by fairplayuk
Sunday, February 12 2012, 10:53PM
“Here here Wellbeloved.
There are too many people willing to believe, that if you park correctly you will not get a ticket. This is not so, the people issuing the tickets can only make a living by catching people out by the methods above, I am only surprised that he was warned not to try and extend his parking ticket.
Parking with additional payment made to extend the stay beyond time first purchased parking regulation 84 of 94”
by Wellbeloved3
Saturday, February 11 2012, 7:59AM
“What a disgrace this is. At any time (but particularly in the current economic climate) we should be doing absolutely EVERYTHING to encourage more people into the city for both work and leisure. Our council cannnot seem to grasp the simple and obvious connection between availability, price and enforcement of parking and the damage done if any of these elements are done badly. This is not the first time this issue has been raised and it is high time that our ELECTED leaders served us better. I dont believe that anyone wants to see a "free for all" chaotic city centre with cars parked at random , but surely a degree of common sense should be applied. The damage done to businesses and the image to the city as a whole cannot be calculated, but it is depressing to see such stories regularly surfacing. I also know for a fact (from friends and from anecdotal evidence) that people are not going to the theatre or concerts in the city hall because of the parking situation in the centre of Hull. You cant expect to have a rigid and lack of common sense approach to this and then complain when the the city is being deserted. All the good work done by people to bring prosperity and life to the city is being totally wrecked by this short sited approach. Will someone please get a grip! Not a free for all but a sensible regime which encourages life back into the city centre. You cant uninvent the car, but you can and should manage it better. The cost of not sorting this will be far more than the amount of revenue raised in overzealous fines.”