Taxi Driver Online

THE JOURNAL (Newcastle, UK)

June 27, 2006 Tuesday

LENGTH: 200 words

HEADLINE: Sanity hope on parking

BYLINE: By Denise Robertson, The Journal

Hopefully sanity is returning to the world of the parking ticket.

This week we heard of a taxi ticketed as he took the fare from a passenger who had just alighted and the woman who returned to find a "no parking" bay had been painted round her car while she was away and a ticket attached.

But new rules to be published next month will abolish all that.

Local authorities must implement new regimes which will minimise the number of cancelled tickets. In other words, if you don't deserve a ticket you won't get one.

Clampers will have to wait an hour instead of 15 minutes before they can immobilise your car and there will be a lesser fine for minor infringements such as overstaying a meter. The amount paid by motorists in parking fees and penalties has doubled over an eight-year period to £1.2bn a year.

Councils collectively made a profit of more than £450m from parking last year. Many councils have set targets for their wardens. Bromley in London demanded 73,000 tickets be issued each year to avoid penalties, and some parking contractors offer employees flat screen TV's and other prizes for issuing the most tickets

In other words, it's not about freeing our roads, it's about fleecing our drivers.
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