Parking Fine outside East Dulwich Deli

[Neve]

I received a ticket when 'unloading' my husband outside East Dulwich Deli at 8:30 in the morning. I was waiting in the car for his return for approximately 2 minutes, at which point we left not realising we had been caught on some sort of hidden camera. I have been issued a parking ticket via post with a lovely picture of the front of the car and the numberplate (but not me sitting gormelssly in the Driver Seat) for 'Parking or loading/unloading in a restricted street where waiting and loading/unloading restrictions are in force'. Whilst I don't mind paying the charge if I am in the wrong, I assumed that the area was ok for unloading, especially as I was sitting in the car at all times. Does anyone know if this is a fair charge? Or if I have misread the parking rules?

[buggie]

Think it's only ok between 10am-4pm, there's not many parking restrictions in ED but the few that there are do catch a lot of people out :-S

[nashoi]

You are normally given 5 minutes 'set down' time, unfortunately this does not normally apply where loading/unloading restrictions apply, regardless of whether you consider your husband to be heavy goods or not.

[KidKruger]

Got stung on same a spot a couple months ago.

The fact you have to often get out of the car to read the sign correctly and can be nabbed by the camera while doing so is a bit rich.

[Fuschia]

Where is the camera?

[Jeremy]

Neve, was it on a weekend or a weekday? From the sign, it looks as though it's a big no-no during the week.

[karter]

Fuschia Wrote:

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

> Where is the camera?

It's the telescopic camera from the car that parks at the various points on that junction.

[kford]

No stopping 7-10am. Loading is usually defined as having to park in that location because the load is too big to carry from a spot around the corner.

[KidKruger]

No I think the camera is on one of the high posts by the side of the street.

The photo of my car which came with my fine was taken from high up, much higher than one of those cars could manage. The angle would suggest the camera is up on a post outside the DIY store or the clothes shop which used to be Walsh's glazing.

[dubluke]

KidKruger Wrote:

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

> No I think the camera is on one of the high posts

> by the side of the street.

> The photo of my car which came with my fine was

> taken from high up, much higher than one of those

> cars could manage. The angle would suggest the

> camera is up on a post outside the DIY store or

> the clothes shop which used to be Walsh's glazing.

The cars sometimes park outside the DIY shop and once parked the cameras raise up on a telescopic pole - hence the high angle.

Unfortunately you might have a hard time getting out of this one as the times don't allow parking or loading between 7 - 10am and between 4 - 7pm. From 10 - 4 you can park for 20 minutes and then park after 7. My only thought is you could argue that the signs aren't clear enough but it's unlikely they'll let you off, might be worht a try though?

[Neve]

Thanks all for your responses. Very kind of you all.

Looks like I was in the wrong then! Yah boo sucks. Hopefully the council will put my ?60 to good use ;o)

[suzisoo]

I got a ticket last month here, I normally stop during the day but it was after 4 and didn't realise parking restrictions were in force. It was a traffic warden not a camera, have to say ?63.95 for a pack of pasta was a bit steep even for the deli!

[sandyman]

I know there's the argument that if you don't breach traffic regs you've got nothing to fear, but that little camera car does seem brutally efficient. It was parked on the corner of East Dulwich Grove at around 4.30 today, near the box junction on Lordship Lane. I couldn't quite understand who it was after but I bet it was doing a brisk trade. No-one would surely have been stupid enough to park on the double yellow lines right in front of it, if it was there to catch people sitting in the box junction it was being pretty sneaky about it. Maybe it was there to catch cars doing illegal right turns?

[Sheepdog]

When that horrid little car is parked on Lordship Lane neare the EDT it is usually illegally parked in a bus lane! These people realy are tossers!

[intexasatthe moment]

I think that's ( illegal turns at a junction )what was being monitored on Tuesday at the East Dulwich Rd / Peckham Rye junction.

There was a traffic car with hugely extended periscope parked on a little space behind the pavement next to the bus stop on the NE side of Peckham Rye Rd.

Not really sure how it had gained access to the spot .( though I didn't look very hard )

[Nero]

Sheepdog...A not so little, red Southwark council parking-check car was parked - illegally - outside Sainsbury's yesterday at around 4 30pm so it could ticket a car. I spoke the the men (there were three of them!) and told them they were themselves parked illegally, so they moved over the road. I had taken a pic of them being parked illegally so one of them started to tell me not to 'hassle' the others and that I would be in great trouble! They were aggressive and I have complained to Southwark parking. So, if you see them parked illegally, take a pic and tell them to move.

[RosieH]

it was being pretty sneaky about it

Because drivers only obey traffic regulations when they think they're going to get caught and fined if they don't?

[karter]

RosieH true for some drivers but not all. Sheepdog and nero are on the money about this and yes take pics of the bast@rds when they illegally park and complain, or rip the telescope off the dinky lil car and throw it in the bus lane.:))

[SeanMacGabhann]

an even better way to get rid of them would be for drivers to not be breaking the law all the time - drivers save money and hassle AND put people they hate out of a job

As it is it's just a pathetic, elongated whine. I wonder if drug dealers have their own forums where they say "look, I know it's wrong and I shouldn't do it but these undercover police are just a money-making scam"

"True - and you know they often break the law when they go undercover - that's EXACTLY as bad as what we are doing - thieving bastards"

[kford]

I could find plenty of examples of motorists in London who didn't intend to break the law, but found themselves ticketed by target-driven, mostly-US companies acting on behalf of greedy councils.

That, and the cheek of being ticketed by a vehicle which is itself blocking a bus lane, is definitely worth a whine.

[danb]

MacGabhann to the rescue again. Yawn.

[SeanMacGabhann]

5 posts dan, and the last two directed at me?

Kford. You are of course correct in that point and I have said as much in the past. But in the bigger picture that isn't the point. This post (as most if them are) was yet another example of a motorist being in the wrong ( not having a go neve, just establishing facts) and yet it's always turned into a debate about how "they" are the bad guys

[danb]

Evidently not everyone has as much time to post on here.

[Jeremy]

In this case, it appears as though it's a fair cop - the sign is there for all to see.

But the fact is that parking enforcement do use predatory, sneaky tactics and frequently issue tickets in cases which are debatable, to say the least (although this isn't really one of them). The assertion that the motorist is always in the wrong is simply not true, and the drug-dealer analogy comes across as rather self-righteous.

[peterstorm1985]

kford Wrote:

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

> I could find plenty of examples of motorists in

> London who didn't intend to break the law, but

> found themselves ticketed by target-driven,

> mostly-US companies acting on behalf of greedy

> councils.

If the 'greedy councils' got to spend the money on whatever they liked then I might have sympathy for the drivers that get caught. But as the money gets spent on things that would otherwise require an increase in my council tax then I'm all for taking money from those who park illegally to fund things for those who are law abiding.

If you get fined when you haven't broken the law then fight like hell, but if you've broken the law, even inadvertently, you do just have to shrug your shoulders and remember to check the signs a bit more carefully next time.

I don't get that cross when the parking attendants park illegally as long as it's in the course of doing their job. What does pi** me off is the police cars that stop on the double yellows by the banks (which is dangerous for pedestrians crossing, and drivers trying to see to get out onto LL) and then the occupants simply get out to use the cash machine.