Maryland
Well-Known Forumite
It's been said before I know, but while Stafford's town centre car parking enforcement policy is so hostile towards motorists, people will continue to desert it for other towns and retail centres. These officials should be used to police illegal parking that causes hazard or inconvenience, and not to, as in my own experience, make money from a correctly-parked car that has overstayed a 30-minute limit by less than ten minutes, early one morning, in an on-street parking area that is almost empty, or to do the same to a car parked outside the police station, for heaven's sake.
I understand absolutely the need to discourage inconsiderate use of on-street parking, and I am someone who takes seriously my civic responsibilities, but the periods of infringement for which I was penalised in both these cases were so trivial, and the inconvenience that might theoretically have been caused to anybody else so obviously absent, and the times of day, and the locations, so far from being busy, and the circumstances in the police station case already stressful enough, that Stafford has, in consequence of these two incidents, lost my business permanently.
Instead of directing its parking officials to laboriously log vehicles in short-term parking and then lurk around waiting for them to tick over the time limit, an activity which very obviously constitutes a major element of their current duties and is quite clearly being used as a money-making activity, Stafford should consider the effect on its economic strategy (assuming one exists, which is far from clear) of the anger this causes.
An intelligent reform would be to extend short-term parking periods from 30 minutes to at least an hour, very closely followed by stopping these officials from targeting such areas on the grubby grounds that they represent a quick way of making money. As is obviously, and shamefully, the case with the parking spaces outside the police station and elsewhere in that part of the town centre. I've seen them at it.
And I'm not one to drive when a public transport alternative exists. But the fares for a seven-minute, mile-and-a-bit journey into town and back are as near as dammit five pounds. So that's out.
It's taken a lot of businesses in this country a very long time to realise that if they treat customers who haven't had a pay rise for years as cash cows, then these customers will simply take their ever-dwindling spending power to a business that treats them with more respect. It's about time Stafford BC understood that a punitive and greedy parking regime produces exactly the same outcome.
And please don't bother trolling me: I'm not interested. Just angry.
Admin Edit: Posts moved to their own thread.
I understand absolutely the need to discourage inconsiderate use of on-street parking, and I am someone who takes seriously my civic responsibilities, but the periods of infringement for which I was penalised in both these cases were so trivial, and the inconvenience that might theoretically have been caused to anybody else so obviously absent, and the times of day, and the locations, so far from being busy, and the circumstances in the police station case already stressful enough, that Stafford has, in consequence of these two incidents, lost my business permanently.
Instead of directing its parking officials to laboriously log vehicles in short-term parking and then lurk around waiting for them to tick over the time limit, an activity which very obviously constitutes a major element of their current duties and is quite clearly being used as a money-making activity, Stafford should consider the effect on its economic strategy (assuming one exists, which is far from clear) of the anger this causes.
An intelligent reform would be to extend short-term parking periods from 30 minutes to at least an hour, very closely followed by stopping these officials from targeting such areas on the grubby grounds that they represent a quick way of making money. As is obviously, and shamefully, the case with the parking spaces outside the police station and elsewhere in that part of the town centre. I've seen them at it.
And I'm not one to drive when a public transport alternative exists. But the fares for a seven-minute, mile-and-a-bit journey into town and back are as near as dammit five pounds. So that's out.
It's taken a lot of businesses in this country a very long time to realise that if they treat customers who haven't had a pay rise for years as cash cows, then these customers will simply take their ever-dwindling spending power to a business that treats them with more respect. It's about time Stafford BC understood that a punitive and greedy parking regime produces exactly the same outcome.
And please don't bother trolling me: I'm not interested. Just angry.
Admin Edit: Posts moved to their own thread.
