Parking predicament outside my own house
I HAVE become a victim of one of the late night parking attendants.
I am a relatively new driver, but myself and my family who also live locally have always had a problem with parking. Not with people parking illegally "for the sake of it" but people pretty much being forced to park illegally because there is, with no exaggeration, nowhere else within the immediate vicinity to park.
I live on Gladstone Street. When I came home one Friday recently at 9pm I went up and down Prospect Road, Gladstone Street, Gladstone Road, Raleigh Street and Rothbury Street and a few other minor roads, all of which had zero available residential parking places. Again, I can't stress enough that this is no exaggeration.
But this area is no stranger to lack of parking places. No matter what time of day, what day of the week you can pretty much guarantee you will be pushed for a parking space. Because of the nature of my work, I work 12-hour shifts and coming home at 9pm means there is little to no chance that I can find a parking spot, especially in the immediate vicinity.
On this occasion, I parked up opposite my house at about 9pm, in full knowledge the car was to be moved at 7am the following morning as I set off for work. Next morning I woke up and got into the car at 06:55am to be greeted by a ticket on my windscreen.
I was far from impressed.
As a new driver I am paranoid about tickets and problems, regulations and the rest of it, so on the days where I am leaving the car during the day or more than 10 hours overnight I do find a parking space, but sometimes it can be easily outside the immediate vicinity, I'm talking down the bottom end of Caledonia Street, Gordon Street which I'm not even sure comes under my zone'.
To top this off, the following Monday morning I saw spaces disappear the second someone pulled out of them, including many people who park on my street then go off into town! People who work in offices in the surrounding area just throw their car on my street with impunity.
So I have to question the council's decision on all that I have said, particulary on the fact that there are far more breaking the rules more subtly during the day than there are people just trying to park at least within the vic-inity of their own home!
The council knows very well that there is a serious problem with parking. In my area the council snatched away a medium-sized car park to build a YCH office on there and to then keep the parking spaces in there private, so overnight there are approximately 30 parking spaces in there that are going completely to waste! In the past we had approximately 50 parking spaces that could be used residentially overnight.
I will be paying my fine, because I do not argue that I am in the wrong "as the rule states" but I am going to pay it with a bitter taste in my mouth. When we pay for parking permits, we expect to be able to park within our zones because we pay for the privilege.
To then find we cannot find a parking space, only to be penalised for trying to stay within the vicinity of our residence, is to me a slap in the face, particulary when I work hard, pay my taxes and have always made sure I never put a foot wrong.
David Dowson
Gladstone Street
Scarborough
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Thursday 09 February 2012
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