Parking is an issue all over the place in the land where a great many houses and shops were built in the days that people didn't have cars. In today's world it is not unusual for a household to have more than one car, all requiring parking at home and in shopping areas. Many home owners have sacrificed or simply done away with front gardens to provide off road parking.

It isn't just in this part of the world that Councils come in to a lot of flack and criticism for the managing of parking and the charges for such a facility. I still have a very keen recollection of doing battle with one down under. In my line of work I was leaving premises to move to the next one. As I was leaving I spotted an offence taking place and it was my job to act upon it. I could have thought.. ooO.. Oh, well, why should I be worried ..Ooo ..then let the individual get away with it. But no, I was stupid enough to deal with the incident. The end result was a nasty parking ticket. Had I left as I had been intending to do it would not have been an issue. The local Police supported my stance in dealing with an offence and accordingly wrote a letter of explanation to the local Council. I took the letter down and was basically told that nothing would change and I had to pay the fine. I duly paid and in the accompanying letter said that the moral of the story is...

[i]If you see a person or persons interfering with property or persons and your car is in a pay and display or on a parking meter then let the offence take place, turn a blind eye and either get into your car and drive away or feed the meter. It will save you the annoyance of a fine but an alleged offender will get away undetected. - Good stuff.[/i]

Let's hope that Councils with attitudes like that don't find themselves in a situation whereby a witness turns a blind eye and carries on leaving someone to commit and get away with an offence because if they don't then the Council will clobber them with a fine. - Catch 22 really; to do the right thing as a citizen and accordingly face a fine for it or carry on and keep the Council happy by feeding the meter again or driving off.

As for the gold plated, cast-iron pensions, nice if you can get it but for most of us our pensions are subject to all manner of things which lead to blow outs in funds and for too many huge losses.

warwick council was the reason I left Warwickshire,Greedy lying ,self centered

Oh, I forgot. They have totally inflation-proof, cast-iron guaranteed pensions as well as free parking. All at our expense. Which government let that one through?

I confess with the present financial problems I do not have the energy for a prolonged fight but getting these council workers to pay for parking would be a great victory!

Same in Stratford. Everyone has to pay to park, apart from the people who work for the council who introduced the parking fees in the first place! Some are clearly more equal than others.

Sorry, meant to add that the parking Gestapo DO get free parking - and they have just had a little hut made for them in the Linen Street car park at the cost of parking spaces! It's taking the P a little surely?

[quote="f'north"]Hear hear

I bet the repsonse would be well workers have to be able to park somewhere.. Toad, Chillit any other shop keep on the forum... bet you have to now pay for the privilige of parking near work..

i'm pretty sure these new warden folks get a free pass to park in the car parks also....[/quote]

I have always paid for parking, running a car costs money and parking is one of the costs! But I am just fed up that we pay for free parking for council workers - why shouldn't they pay like the rest of us? They get quite enough perks and should be made to pay.

[quote="f'north"]Hear hear

I bet the repsonse would be well workers have to be able to park somewhere.. Toad, Chillit any other shop keep on the forum... bet you have to now pay for the privilige of parking near work..

i'm pretty sure these new warden folks get a free pass to park in the car parks also....[/quote]

Privilege? It's an honour to pay so much to park so far from the town centre... :rolleyes:

[quote="Toad"]
On the County Council reply; the biggest gripe is that they have private car parks (Barrack Street and Cape Road) and that many council workers (WDC as well as WCC) get free parking, or rather parking at the taxpayers expense. Why?[/quote]


Hear hear

I bet the repsonse would be well workers have to be able to park somewhere.. Toad, Chillit any other shop keep on the forum... bet you have to now pay for the privilige of parking near work..

i'm pretty sure these new warden folks get a free pass to park in the car parks also....

Couple of things on the parking. It has worked really well and I think most businesses are very happy. Certainly customers are finding it much easier to park and this should be enhanced now we have the new bus station up and running (and that car park back too).

On the County Council reply; the biggest gripe is that they have private car parks (Barrack Street and Cape Road) and that many council workers (WDC as well as WCC) get free parking, or rather parking at the taxpayers expense. Why?

The trouble is that Warwick is too small a town for such a large organisation as a County Council. Believe me, as a council worker things are getting done to reduce the parking problem, but it won't work for everyone's arrangements.

For example, there is a thriving car-share scheme, but due to job requirements, not everyone can guarentee a start/finish time every day. Parking permits are only given to people who live I believe over 3 miles from their base office, and various schemes are running to help people afford bikes and train/bus passes etc.

The trouble is, you're trying to create some big scary monster called 'The County Council' to blame all your troubles on, when at the end of the day, it's the selfishness of individuals just like you or I on how they decide to get to work/park that causes the trouble.

For my part, I don't own a car and walk to work, so I'm blameless ;)

[quote="Toad"]From a traders point of view it is really important that you keep a day-by-day comparison of takings this year and in previous years. If, as we all suspect, takings fall we may well have a case for compensation from the local council and would almost certainly be due a rebate on our UBR.
[/quote]

Just wondering how your takings were looking, as I am interested to see if this is working to improve shopping in the town. Personally I now shop in Warwick more as it is easier to find a space

Just a reminder - the Chamber of Trade is seeking reactions and responses for the review of the new parking regime. Please send any positive (or negative) reactions to [email]info@warwickchamberoftrade.co.uk[/email] as soon as possible. All responses will be forwarded to the review committee.
Your chance to respond to the last three months of parking controls. Please use it.

Not unhappy at all - we wanted this parking scheme, just a pity it's been implemented by a totally incompentent county council! Only unhappy because it's cost loads of our money and they can't even order the solar panels for a few parking machines. And will anyone be held to account - err No!! Anyway, much more concerned about the wretched mop ruining the place. But they go tomorrow - BIG smiles!!

[quote="Toad"]Another update. Talking to a parking attendant, he admitted that most of the machines were still not linked to the mains (and the batteries are flat) and that they cannot attract enough wardens. [/quote]

Free parking then! :D

I would have thought that would make the citizens and traders of Warwick happy for a bit.

....apparently not though, it seems.

Another update. Talking to a parking attendant, he admitted that most of the machines were still not linked to the mains (and the batteries are flat) and that they cannot attract enough wardens. You couldn't make this sort of incompetence up - unless it's WCC, in which case it's expected!