HITLERS
Derek Scott got lost as he searched for
an address in central London. After driving down
the same road in Westminster three times, he
spotted a warden, pulled over and ran to the back
of his van to ask for help. The warden said
NOTHING about illegal parking and told him the
way to the nearby address.
But as Derek went to get in his vehicle, he found
a SECOND warden writing a ticket. Despite
pleading with the warden, he was told,
“You’re too late, you shouldn’t
have stopped here.”
Derek was told the ticket had been imposed
because he had stopped in an area when
“waiting loading and unloading restrictions
were in place”. He was given 14 days to pay
the £50 fine, or it will be increased to £100.
Derek said, “I wasn’t waiting, loading
or unloading and I was talking to a warden when
this other one booked me. I’m furious.
It’s just barmy bureaucracy.” The City
of Westminster Council’s Parking Regulation
Unit refused to show mercy saying, “We have
a firm but fair parking policy.” |
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TRAFFIC WARDENS 4
Traffic wardens are being paid extra if they catch more
motorists, while competing for a gleaming TROPHY
presented each month. The 'champions league' run by
council contractor NCP has sparked a ticketing frenzy
among staff. Bosses boost the wages of wardens who issue
the most penalties by up to a quarter, and the team that
does best wins the cup. The incentive scheme among NCP
parking attendants working for Westminster City Council
in London was branded 'obscene' by motoring campaigners
and it fuelled fears that innocent motorists are falling
prey to corrupt wardens issuing dud tickets to qualify
for their bonuses.
One disgusted NCP parking attendant admitted,
“Wardens feel under massive pressure. Some end up
issuing dodgy tickets to try and meet the targets. One
attendant was fired recently for pretending he had fixed
loads of tickets to car windscreens. Later dozens of
tickets were found lying inside his locker.” Wardens
working for car parking giant NCP in Westminster are
deployed from seven area bases. Their basic wage is
little more than £6.75 an hour. But those doling out a
monthly average of two tickets an hour get a £50 bonus.
That soars to £215 if parking attendants nail three
motorists an hour. The attendant who lifted the lid on
the incentive scheme works at one of Westminster’s
seven traffic warden bases. We are not naming him to
protect his job. The warden said, “When we won the
cup our base manager promised us an office party. The
managers pump you to issue PCNs, penalty charge notices.
The more tickets we issue, the more cash we make. But
attendants who don’t issue enough are pushed out the
door.” The sky-high ticket quotas set by NCP in
Westminster are estimated to have netted the council at
least £777,200 in one month from the Lexington Street
base alone.
It achieved 93.7% of its 16,595 penalty target, winning
it the 'Westminster Parking Enforcement Base of the
Month' cup. The total number of tickets issued in January
2004 by five of the seven bases was 84,154, worth at
least £4,207,700 to the council. Insiders say pressure
on wardens to issue more tickets was immediately
ratcheted up. Monthly bonuses for wardens in Westminster
are based on a grading system from A to G. Those in teams
achieving level A get £50 for writing an average of two
tickets an hour. This rises to £215 in band G if three
tickets an hour are issued.
To qualify for the extra payout wardens must meet
criteria for sickness and absence. The ratio of tickets
paid promptly by drivers is also considered. Mistakes by
wardens when issuing tickets are taken into account, as
well as complaints and any disciplinary action. At first,
NCP bosses denied knowledge of the bonus scheme or trophy
but spokesman Luke Blair later admitted, “There is
an incentive for people doing their job properly, fining
as many illegally parked cars as they can. The cup is for
the base with the best performance.”
A traffic warden slapped a £30 fine on a
taxi by using a law aimed at HORSE-DRAWN carriages.
Cabbie John Pier was nicked after he left his car on the
rank. He was told the Act demands you stay with your
horse and he had broken the 1847 law by leaving his
‘carriage’ unattended. The Act also states you
must carry a bale of hay!
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