CPZ (Controlled Parking Zone) & Discrimination

OK so I am not normally critical of those Parking Attendants, or Parking Control Officers as they prefer to be called, I think! Generally I feel that they do an important and difficult job with a lot of unnecessary grief from members of the public who, by and large, deserve the parking tickets they get, in spite of having received a parking ticket myself a couple of years ago, in what I considered to be rather unfair circumstances, friends on Facebook can see the full details here But even taking that into account I feel that they are generally there for the benefit of all.

However my view is now changing a bit, following an incident that happened this morning, and No I didn’t get a ticket, neither was I at risk of getting one, I am incensed at the treatment that one such parking officer gave to another driver.

Anyhow, we picked Steven up from respite this morning and went into town, we had to drop the insurance claim form (for the laptop that Steven broke last weekend only days after we got it!!!!) due to the postal strike we decided delivering by hand would be prudent.

Anyhow, we managed to get parked in Allhallows, for those who don’t know Bedford its a pedestrian zone but they have disabled parking there, only vehicles with blue badges are permitted down the road but that doesn’t stop most people chancing their arms, largely because there are a few banks with cash machines handy there.

OK we just managed to slide into a space because someone was leaving as we arrived, we went off and did our shop, proudly displaying Steven’s blue badge.

On our return, we had just dropped the letter off, had a coffee and got some fresh bread, there was a traffic warden in the road, as I said earlier its a pedestrian zone with no access to vehicles except those with disabled parking permits.

This guy was telling those who had come down there illegally that they had to go otherwise he would book them, good on him, it was a bit chaotic with so many cars and vans that should not have been there at all!

Anyhow, as we proceeded to load Steven in, via the wheelchair lift, a car pulled up, clearly displaying his blue badge, I indicated we would be gone in a couple of minutes, so he waited, the warden then proceeded to issue the driver with a parking ticket! I protested on the drivers behalf and told the warden that he was just waiting till we had gone and was displaying a parking badge, the warden advised me to mind my own business and just said that he should not be waiting as there was a ‘loading ban’ So I asked him why he wasn’t booking all the vehicles which had driven in illegally, clearly ignoring the sign-age which said no entry, he said that was because they were leaving! however they had committed an offence just by going into the street, indeed they were also creating chaos on the road and making it difficult for pedestrians, as well as those who were the legitimately, so had caused a far more serious offence!

Anyhow, the driver with the blue badge made off before he could get a ticket, which is understandable I would have done the same if I was him!

The point of this story is this, was the parking guy discriminating against the disabled driver? OK so the driver MIGHT have been committing a minor technical offence in waiting for our space to come free BUT the other drivers had committed a far more serious breach in driving down the road in the first place and it was them, NOT the disabled driver, which were causing the chaos and endangering pedestrians with their action.

OK I might be over reacting here but it has incensed me enough that I have made a formal complaint to the council for the actions this particular officer took, and specifically for his discrimination in enforcing the law differently to the disabled driver than he did to the other drivers.

I am not planning to make too much of a deal about it but I am annoyed, as you have probably guessed! At this whole thing.