Traffic Wardens on Sunday Morning

[p_in_ed]

I came out of my house on Adys Road at 9.30 am on Sunday morning. A Southwark Council badged car with two traffic wardens had just pulled up, and the warden was ticketing a car up the road (not mine thankfully) that had been parked six inches over a dropped kerb area.

Sunday morning monitoring of parking infringements seems unnecessary, verging on the obsessive, on the part of the council. I?m sure the service pays for itself, but I?m not sure it does anything to persuade me that we have a council that works hard to improve the quality of our lives.

Beside the car was a rubbish bin with torn bags beside it that had been left uncollected for the last three days.

I?d rather see the car un-ticketed and the rubbish collected.

[ronald scott]

I am with you on this one, but I am not sure of the cost efficency of two wardens on double time on a sunday.

[????]

We've had this before but.... Sunday morning's a lovely time for incentivised Traffic Wardens KERCHING and here you go Southwark council more money for you...everyone's laughing....er, maybe

[SimonM]

If the car was even partially blocking a dropped kerb then I'd rather they'd had it towed away than merely ticketed it: the fact of it being a Sunday morning being wholly irrelevant. :) That way the rubbish would be gone too and everybody would win!

[cathg]

Excuse my ignorance - isn't a dropped kerb the thing house owners use to get into their drives? how did the wardens know the car parked there didn't belong someone who lived there? I thought that it was no offence to park across a dropped kerb if no car in the drive. if there was a car and they were blocking it they were causing an obstruction, so, as simon says, towing it away would have been the better solution than a ticket.

Perhaps the people who lived there called southwark council. Though if they did do this it is fantastically and uncharacteristically efficient of the council to come out on a sunday morning (unless they called them on the thursday).

[SimonM]

If a droped kerb outside a house has an unbroken white line across it - as most do - then it's always an offence to park on it, irrespective of whether there is a car parked in the driveway. However the more usual meaning of "dropped kerb" is the kind found at road junctions, pedestrian crossings etc to allow buggies, wheelchairs etc to move from the pavement on to the road more easily. It is the latter that traffic wardens come down hard on.

[Siduhe]

cathg you're pretty much right - section 14 of the London Local Authorities and Transport for London Act 2003 says it is an offence to park across a dropped kerb (or even next to it, if the area is part of a special parking area), but if the dropped kerb is for a single residential dwelling (rather than shared residential accomodation like flats or a conversion) the Council can only issue a PCN at the specific request of the householder.

If the house was converted into flats, the wardens would have been able to issue the PCN without reference to anyone.

[Tony.London Suburbs]

In my Borough one had to sign the relevant form stating that one did NOT want anyone parking o/s their drive/dropped kerb.If the resident did not sign then anyone can park in front of someones drive.

I did not as this would prevent me or a visitor parking across my own drive and I'm not near any facilities where anyone would be tempted to park across my drive.

[nunheadbelle]

I don't mind the idea of dropped kerbs, but it's annoying when almost EVERY property in a road has a dropped kerb, which makes the whole road dropped.

What are the requirements for getting a dropped kerb anyway?

[Siduhe]

nunheadbelle Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> What are the requirements for getting a dropped

> kerb anyway?

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/HomeAndCommunity/WhereYouLive/StreetsParkingCleaningAndLighting/DG_10026223

Basically, it's down to the Council providing you have enough space for off-street parking, but they may require you to get planning permission depending on the type of road you live on.

[mattham]

so excuse my ignorance ? and sorry if this has been answered but am completely clueless on parking terminology ??if a dropped kerb, eg outside someone's house, has an unbroken white line then it's a ticketable offence; ok, what if there is no line, and someone's just painted on the fence: 'no parking, gates in use' or somesuch, is parking there an offence? or just antisocial? Parking restrictions are a complete mystery to me.

[lard]

Ask to see their working permits. That'll send 50% of them running. (In Lambeth at least)

[Siduhe]

If there is a dropped kerb it is a PCN'able offence to park across it so as to prevent someone from exiting from the driveway, white line or no white line (assuming it's a properly done by Council dropped kerb, not a dodgy done by builders after dark dropped kerb). The white line is a courtesy marking done by some Councils in some streets and has no legal status, despite what I see posted on the internet on a regular basis.

See for example http://www.hounslow.gov.uk/mobile/index/transport_and_streets/roads_and_highways/dropped_kerb/obstructing_dropped_kerb.htm or http://www.lewisham.gov.uk/transportandstreets/parking/droppedkerbscrossover.htm

[LibraCarr]

Hi,

Just to advise, the red Southwark Council parking car (hybrid) is used 24 hours a day. I saw it exiting Manor Place Council Yard at 20.05 this evening.

Enforcement of parking is now done on a 24 hour basis. Its not safe to think that after six you will be OK. For instance three wardens wait outside (covertly) Manor Place, Walworth, Police station after 18.00Hrs to issue tickets to the persons entering MacDonalds, The Police Station and the Pizza shop. Drivers are of the belief that parking restrictions end at 18.00Hrs. This is not so.

A simple tip is to look out for the displayed signs, then you will not be caught out.

Regards,

Libra Carr.