'Wardens making too many mistakes'
TRAFFIC wardens in Swansea got it wrong almost 4,000 times last year, figures have revealed.
In fact over one in 10 parking tickets issued by the council between November 2008 and November 2009 were successfully challenged by members of the public.
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Motorist Calvin Thomas, from Brynmill, who overtuned a parking fine.
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Figures obtained by the Evening Post through the Freedom of Information Act show that over half of parking tickets appealed were eventually dismissed.
And some members of the public feel that trigger happy traffic wardens armed with ticket printing machines are making too many mistakes.
Brynmill resident Calvin Thomas successfully challenged the council last year after being issued with a fine for parking outside his house on Rhyddings Park Road.
The 26-year-old had parked momentarily on single yellow lines on Rhyddings Park Road to unload his car.
He was suffering from an ankle injury at the time.
"In my case they could not have known about my leg and in fairness they overturned the ticket on compassionate grounds, but I was only parked for 10 minutes.
"They must have seen me coming and going but they took their chance to swoop while I was in the house. It seems that wardens are getting it increasingly wrong.
"I have a friend whose ticket was overturned because the traffic warden had issued a ticket while he was parked in a two-hour bay, but my friend had only been parked there for just over an hour."
In December, the Post revealed the number of parking tickets dished out to motorists in Swansea almost tripled over the past year.
The sharp rise comes after the council took over responsibility for parking enforcement in the city from police in September 2008.
In a response to the Post's latest freedom of information inquiry, a council spokesman said: "Between November 1, 2008, and November 30, 2009, the authority issued 27,120 Penalty Charge Notices.
"The number of appeals received was 7,079 (there may be more than one letter per case), of which 3,844 appeals were accepted."
Mr Thomas thinks those statistics are too high.
"It seems the council is becoming increasingly reliant on cash generated from parking fines.
"Mistakes are being made because of their greed," he said.
However, the authority believes that offering drivers the chance to prove their innocence is an important part of the process.
The spokesman said: "Part of the Civil Parking Enforcement Service provides motorists with the opportunity to appeal against a fixed penalty notice.
"Each appeal is treated as an individual case.
"It is important that we show an adequate level of understanding towards motorists who may have parked unlawfully and have received a penalty notice.
"This means we will consider mitigating factors before requesting the motorist pays any fine.
"The council has published a discretion guide on its website giving the public more information about appealing against a parking fine," he said.
In Thursday's Evening Post: How to pick your parking fine battles - and win.
15 Comments
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by Jules, Uplands
Friday, January 15 2010, 10:17AM
“Why is it that they never seem to catch the selfish 4X4 drivers wo park half on the pavement making it nearly impossible to to pass and forcing pushchairs into the street. I would so love to see a few of these people clamped or towed away!”
by jeffery, dirty town
Wednesday, January 13 2010, 10:27PM
“its the same everywhere , the wardens here in Port Talbot will walk past an illegally parked taxi and ticket a person who has overstayed the time in the surface car park. The pairs of wardens will stand around until a car has passed its expiry time and then book it. You can often see then in the multi story car park when it is raining
The answer is to not park illgally and if you get an invalid ticket appeal it and irritate the leader CEO and as many other council staff as you can. Tip. they dont like emails especially if you CC a lot of them. Causes civic brain overload”
by Steve Jones, Uplands
Wednesday, January 13 2010, 8:43PM
“Michael, Swansea - you desreve to be booked. Yellow lines ar there so that idiots like you don't park on them. If you're unable to walkin the snow you should pay for someone to teach you. It's very simple. People like you should be locked up not just given a parking ticket.”
by leighton, swansea
Wednesday, January 13 2010, 6:55PM
“michael, Swansea ........Grow up and pay up like a man!!
Stop crying and trying to dig your way out! You parked there because you were running late and came up with the fortune cookie story of there's to much ice on the road. Dont be pathetic , you parked in the wrong place, TUFF. you pay boy!!!!!
also Dan, Swansea .......
Simple dont park there anymore you muppet. Simply park in another parking zone and WALK to the LC..I mean are you both really this think or what!!!!!!!!!!
What i do is simple, which i have put on here before.. i park in the disables all the time, its easy to get a badge, when i go to the bank i just put the whole c ar on the PAVMENT just cause i can, its tuff who cares, f@uck them lol.
im on double yellows at leats 3 times a week couldn give a monkeys. tesco's park tawe the lot, i take full advantage of free parking all the time and i will continue to do so!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
by Dan, Swansea
Wednesday, January 13 2010, 5:16PM
“i went to the leisure centre today to find that all the spaces were taken, so i did what i usually do in this situation and park in one of the many free disabled places and still showed my parking sign allowing me to park in that carpark for free. Any advice to get round this atall, i know i should not of parked there but there were no other spaces and many of these free.”
by Richard, Swansea
Wednesday, January 13 2010, 4:48PM
“My freind got a ticket on new years day!!! he was not even parked on yellow lines, luckily he took a photo and has appealed against the fine.”
by steve, neath
Wednesday, January 13 2010, 3:40PM
“swansea council don't employ enogh traffic wadens and judging by the huge number of dangerous and illegally parked cars i've seen in theoutskirts of swansea they don't issue nearly enough tickets either”
by Bob, Kidwelly
Wednesday, January 13 2010, 2:34PM
“The way to stop this silly nonsense is perfectly simple. If a warden issues a ticket that does not stand then he is personally liable to pay the wronged driver twice the amount of the ticket. This money should not come from the council, which means the taxpayer, but the idiot who made the error. I guarantee this would soon stop.”
by geoff, Westcross
Wednesday, January 13 2010, 2:02PM
“The traffic wardens seem to walk around in pairs a lot too
I waited in glamorgan street by the old Vetch sometime in october-november
2 of them started walking up from the tesco store end
not taking numbers of cars ,but,booking them.
Until the woman traffic officer just took my number and then booked the car directly behind me.now,id been there for at least an hour myself and did not see them in that area in that hour
my point is,that,they must have came into the street asuming that the cars were there for over the hour!!”
by michael, Swansea
Wednesday, January 13 2010, 1:02PM
“J, is it fair that one of my colleagues spoke to the traffic warden and he stopped writing her ticket? whereas i was in the office and got booked? I am sorry but consideration needs to be given, the much advertised park and ride isn't running at half 6 for me to use so thats no good... disabled badge holders are entitled to three hours parking on a single yellow... so it can't be that much of an obstacle or they wouldn't be allowed to park there at all...”