I hate Islington Parking Enforcement

matt

# 42 In my ongoing series of disputes with Islington Parking Enforcement

Last night, I came back from the shop and parked my car opposite my house on Shaftesbury Road in amongst several other cars. There was no sign of any parking suspension.

This morning, circa 10.30, I greet a visitor and notice up have sprung several cones around my car and the side of the road has been suspended. A parking warden is issuing me with a ticket. I call over to him and request him to stop and give him my intention to move the car immediately, but of course he slaps the ticket on anyway. ARRRRGH. I move the car within moments to my side of the road.

It's now 13:20 and the people have arrived to cut down part of an overhanging tree.

I f*cking hate Islington Parking Enforcement

ps: the difference in serial numbers between this ticket and my last (for failing to display a new permit immediately after buying it, which thankfully was nullified) is 576,753 which, if we assume one ticket per serial number, subsequent serial numbers and the lowest £60 fine amount, means that in just 3 months (Dec 12 - March 11) they have fined a total of £34,605,180. Yes, £34 million.

andy

According to [this](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/graphics/2008/02/05/parkingfines.pdf), Islington make £13.4m per year from parking fines alone. This is 334 thousand. Or nearly a thousand a day. The population of Islington is 174,000. http://www.statistics.gov.uk/census2001/pyramids/pages/00au.asp So you could say each resident gets two tickets a year. There are 42,000 cars in Islington. (http://www.islington.gov.uk/DownloadableDocuments/TransportandStreets/Pdf/sustainabletransportstrategy/vol1_chapter2.pdf) At £13.4m (assuming the majority of tickets are issued to drivers in the borough), that's £320 per car. That's before adding the £95 CPZ charge.

andy

Islington received £1.1bn in 2006/7. Most of this is govt grants, business rates and other items that they have little control over. Only £67m of this came from Council Tax. Nearly £20m came from parking fines and CPZ fees.

dominic

Surely it's mainly people who *don't* live in Islington that mostly get the tickets?

I'm not going to defend the council's immoral profiteering but if there was no punishment then it would be ANARCHY within DAYS!!! ANARCHY I say. Or like the Glastonbury carpark at 10am on the Monday morning.

tosscat

I'm going to defend it and if you lived on the traffic free-for-all nightmare that is Granville Road so would you. As I say, fascinating.

dion

not to rub salt in the wound too much, but i have recently moved to haringey from islington and havne't had a ticket yet!

at least 5 occasions in 3 months when we would have been 'bang to rights' in their eyes, and we have got away with them all.

more room for human error in haringey, and both the vouchers and the permit are cheaper and you can actually get more of them. though no day vouchers, so had to put 10 single hour vouchers on today for a visitor. much more labour intensive scratching but well worth it.

i feel a lot of anger and hatred has been removed from my life; my only problem now is where to channel all that extraneous negative emotion!

David

I find <em>TFTM^TM</em> is perfect for extraneous negative emotion.

I agree that Haringey is cheaper and less draconian on the parking front. I got a ticket on an empty street on the Islington side for mis-reading a match day technicality. On the Haringey side they helped sort me out a skip for two weeks in my parking zone area within an hour despite a weeks notice being required for a minor fee. Just that bit more human and forgiving. Anecodotal I'm sure but its been my experience for the two years I've dealt with them.

Except for the wheely bin saga. Don't get me started on my wheely bin saga.

jandb

Go on David ... vent your spleen.