Drivers in two-minute warning from wardens
Tuesday 29th March 2011, 11:30AM BST.
Drivers who leave their cars on town centre roads where new parking charges have just come into force have only two minutes to get a ticket and stick it to their windscreen, it emerged today.
Some motorists have hit out at the short time allowed in Walsall and said there should be a longer period of grace while people get used to the new charges.
The Express & Star revealed last week that 670 drivers were caught out by the new fees within the first eight days of their introduction.
Machines have been installed in 19 town centre streets with the 20p per 10 minute fee being brought in from March 7.
Roads affected include Hatherton Street, Lichfield Street and Station Street.
Driver Keith Ricardo said he was shocked when he received a parking fine just two minutes after pulling into a space in Ablewell Street last week.
The company owner, of Chuckery, claims he went to look at the machines before ducking into a shop to get some change.
But when he returned two minutes later, a warden was issuing a parking fine. Mr Ricardo, aged 68, said: “I wasn’t trying to avoid any charge, I was just trying to get change.
“Two minutes isn’t a very long period of time for people. I only went to look at the machines and the get some change.”
Mr Ricardo is now planning to appeal.
Driver Sue Wilson, aged 50, of Stanhurst Way, West Bromwich, said today: “Charging does stop some people coming into the town.
“It is a bit of a con if you only have two minutes to get a ticket especially if you are parking quite a distance from the metre. I thought it was free until I read the sign.”
Paul Leighton, group leader for traffic management and parking at Walsall Council, said: “We do allow a short period of time for motorists to purchase the required pay and display ticket.
“However should the motorist feel unhappy with his vehicle being issued with a penalty charge notice he has the right to appeal.”
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Would the Councillors who are spending loads of money trying to get businesses to open in the city centre and trying to encourage shoppers to come in and spend money, please have lunch with the Councillors who are trying their best to keep everyone out.
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Well said. The council may be strapped for cash but so are the paying public. I refuse to pay to park on street or in their car parks with a minimum 2 hour charging period. At least the supermarkets have the right idea by offering free or refundable parking to attract customers.
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… IN OTHER EU COUNTRIES, you have the option with in 24 hours to cancel the parking fine by going to the ticket machine and payiing for another “cancel fine” ticket which costs 6.50 euros, as long as it within 24 hours or you then get a 60 pound paking fee !
you also post the cancel ticket with the fine ticket into the pay box, this also stops admin fee’s too !
This is fair, England is not its why i left to live elsewhere !
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i parked in lichfield street yesterday afternoon
could not find the meter at first when i did i did not have the correct change so went back to my car and found a ticket on it ticket reads observed from 16:33 to 16:35
2 minutes is not enough time i felt like i had been a victim of entrapment.
i will not be shopping in Walsall again with its rip of council and do they make any money out of it with more traffic wardens than shoppers.
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Thanks Adrian. Can I use the parking space then? I tend to find it hard to park on Lichfield Street during busy times.
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Simple answer. Don’t shop in Town centres. Use merryhill untill councils wise up!This is people power, and it is up to people to use it.
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Agreed. We are many they are few.
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Good idea. Use additional petrol to get there, additional time, to save a little on parking. Whats the fuel cost to get to Merry Hill during daytime from Walsall? About £5 there and back?
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Typically the reason why people power will never work with people like yourself.No one prepared to teach the council a lesson. So it costs alittle more.Why should you have to pay to shop? Your attitude is why petrol will never come down. No one in this country sticks together. I bet your one of the people who can’t even vote for change because he is worried of the extra petrol to get to the polling booth!!
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I prefer not handing over a bunch more money to government in fuel duties simply to avoid small payment for parking.
My attitude, as you call it, makes no difference to the price of fuel. Still, if you want to run for office on reducing or cancelling fuel tax, go ahead. More cuts to pay for it?
As for the voting booth – I’ve voted in every local and national election since reaching voting age.
If YOU don’t like what a particular council is doing, run for office. You may however find people don’t agree with you.
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So you will hand over money every week to pay to park just for the privelage of shopping? If I ran for office, and abolished car parking charges, I think there would be alot of people who would agree with me, other than the greedy Councillors of course! It is one of the reasons shops are closing down. Take a look at Dudley and what shops they have lost. Dudley used to be a great place, and now it is a run down junk shop town. Such a shame councils won’t wake up to it!
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Lets see, £1 for parking, or £5 in fuel. No brainer really – so yes I will pay to park when its far, far cheaper than taking the car miles away to park free.
Not sure I’d agree with you that Dudley used to be a great place, then again I’ve only been there about 70 times in 2 decades.
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I understand your concern about paying more for fuel just to avoid paying parking charges. It is the principles of the thing that annoys me. Councils want you to support your local town and businesses,yet they don’t support you.Perhaps we should pay a little extra to shop a few miles away just to teach them a lesson!It’s the only way these people will ever learn.
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This is ridiculous!
The money they make out the fines will surely not cover the rates they get from a shop when it goes bust through lack of people coming to town!
Where has their common sense gone?
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If a shop goes bust over a few people not coming into town due to parking restrictions, the shop has considerably bigger problems. And just think of the spaces now available to other shoppers who previously couldn’t park.
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Basically Walsall MBC doesn’t want your car in their town & want people to take their life in their hands by using the Walsall bus station.
If you can shop local to where you live & tell Walsall MBC where to get off
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Couldn’t agree more with No.3. I now shop in Bilston where parking is free all day. Walsall’s a dying town anyway, there’s hardly anything decent unless you venture up to the Warf.
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thank heaven i now live in Canada…. far away from dumb rules like these eh?
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… IN SPAIN you have the option with in 24 hours to cancel the parking fine by going to the ticket machine and payiing for another “cancel fine” ticket which costs 6.50 euros, as long as it within 24 hours or you then get a 60 pound paking fee !
This is fair, England is just “stealth tax” gone crazy now… but its the brittish people who politely put up with it in stead of taking to the sreets and protesting !
……………………………………..
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Clearly Walsall councillors don’t want people to shop in the town centre, what damn morons, just one parking ticket that’s all, it takes to stop people parking in the town.
I live in Bearwood in Sandwell and about 6 years back the council decided to narrow the road in parts of the High Street, they also removed a number of parking spaces and then bought in an army of parking wardens, wow what an amazing transformation!!!!!!!!
First because of the shortage of customers all the quality stores moved out, then the charity shops closed down, now the High Street is like a ghost town, and to hide the fact they cocked up the council have covered the empty shops up with pretty pictures, as if that will hide the fact that the council has destroyed a once thriving shopping centre.
I read recently that the Shopkeepers on Smethwick High Street were horrified to find their profits have halved after the council had painted yellow lines outside their shops, the question has to be asked, why have these councils declared war on the shoppers / drivers, who the hell do these councillors think they are??
Remember people local elections are looming.
Jim of Bearwood
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That Sounds familiar Wolverhampton seems to have grown ‘cardboard shops’ now all the proper shops have closed down due to no where to park
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Just a thought, why don’t you park in one of the numinous car parks in the town centre and stop moaning?? If you abandon your car on the street then what do you expect…….
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lets hope you dont get ticketed
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If the council’s carparks were in a better condition (Hatherton Road is a prime example of unsafe, dingy unwelcoming carpark )then I would consider parking in them but they are not.
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Does anyone know if these machines take debit / credit cards? They have only just been put in so it would be rediculous if you had to find change in 2011. Other councils / car park companies use credit / debit and even mobile phones to pay nowadays. 2 mins is rediculous even for able bodied people, what about the people who are borderline disabled but are decent enough not to go for a blue badge or are just simply getting slower in their old age?
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” what about the people who are borderline disabled but are decent enough not to go for a blue badge ”
So as a blue badge holder my wife and I and anyone else having a badge are seen as not being decent…. Is that what you are saying Nick ?
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The way I see my disabilities (multiple), its a binary solution. Either disabled or not disabled. Some qualify for disability benefits, some qualify for blue badge.
Nothing about decent or not being decent. Some of us just have major problems with getting around.
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Another brainless revenue raising exercise from the “Con-Demolition” coalition council that has ruined Walsall town centre.
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It amazes me how people moan about having to pay for parking. It’s pathetic. 2 mins is more than enough. Stop moaning about stupid little things if you dont want to pay for the convenience of parking catch the bus.
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Or shop where you don’t have to pay to park.
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has any one noticed how obscure these machines are painted black and resemble council ash trays
why do they not have pay and display signs on them like in all the car parks so you can see them easily
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Blanket statements from the powers that be, despite their position. This whole sordid scheme is about maximizing profit through misery. People often complain about rogue car clamping operations – well, what about traffic wardens pounce with such rat-like cunning? Well done, Walsall. You turned even more people away.
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Only last week it was reported that nearby Wolverhampton was cutting their parking charges in order to get more people into town to shop! These people really are clueless.
I looked at Walsall’s Council web site and there’s no clues as to which streets are affected, there’s no indication of where the machines to put the money into are actually located and it would be useful to have some idea of how much change the innocent shopper would need to be robbed by in order to be free to shop. Sort it out Walsall Council!
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Why don’t you all stop moaning & take some action.
Either write phone or e.mail your local councillor & ask them to confirm that they are against these ridiculous charges. If they won’t then advise them that you will certainly be voting against them in the next election. And point out that they are actually public servants NOT tin pot dictators.
And then be sure to get up off your backsides on May 5 and vote them out of office.
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ROBBED?? what are you on about nobody is forcing you to pay for parking. leave your car in a side street and walk into town or catch the bus and stop being so tight. And yes lets all vote for someone else. That wont make any difference at all parking charges will be there. some people just want everything for nothing. I pay for the convenience of parking in the city centre in Wolves.
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its obvious you do not no Walsall most of the side streets have meters to they are all over the place
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Most of the side streets I drive down don’t have them. Or there are always car parks around, for those who want to spend a variable amount of time out in town. Not as if there aren’t signs around either, or newspaper articles.
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John, im actually a Civil Enforcement Officer(or as you wrongly put it a Traffic Warden) and i still pay to park in the City Centre in Wolverhampton and if i break the rules I would expect to get a ticket aswell. I am paid to do a job and i dont make the rules i just enforce them. how wrong of me to work to support my wife and 4 children. perhaps i should just go and sign on and live off tax payers money would that make you happy.
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No but you could go get a real job that doesnt put misery to others just to put money in your pocket, if everyone refused to do such a nasty job then how could they ticket people….
… ive seen the likes of you putting tickets on cars cos there slightly out of the parking grid to get you bonus !
you me friend are whats wrong with england…
Why dont you join the army and serve the people of britain like me, instead of heaping on misery and doing the dirty work of dick turpin ?
SHAME ON YOU !
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it is a real job.
and you have no rights to judge me as a person just because of the job i do, the likes of me you dont even know me as a person. i would never judge a person by the job they do. how small minded. heaping misery on people? i think whats wrong with this country is the people that sit on there arse and spending tax payers money, and people who think violence is the answer to everything.
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… and i bet your children are so proud of you !
horrible job for horrible people.
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To make a comment on your statement “Some people want everything for nothing”. They just want to be able to park legally for free and spend their hard earned money in the shops without feeling they are being persecuted . Why should we have to pay to park when we are supporting the town. Merryhill is free to ark..(Private concerns yes) But stil looks after its customers.
Your job is not one I would like to do as some of the comments on here show.However I don’t agree with the Chavy comments about you doing your job, by people who need to get an education, and learn proper English.
Michael the scab..if you are in the army then god help us all. You can’t even spell your name correctly,unless of course that’s a new way to spell it. I don’t wish to offend any good soldier ..But you ain’t serving me in anyway!!
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I agree my point is all these people saying they will shop elsewhere are just doing themselves out of money the space they don’t use will be used by someone else. and to the person who said paying for parking as meant wolves as got a lot of so called cardboard shop complete and utter rubbish the summer row project that ad now fallen through is to blame for that.
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I thought Dick Turpin was dead? Just a legal way of mugging the public. I’ve seen them ticket the Council vehicles on the Car Park outside the Register Office. Absolutely no vehicle is safe. What makes me angry, is that there are white painted letters on the Register Office car park stating ‘Visitor Parking’. Members of the Public then park in this space (could be registering a death), only to come out to find a ticket on their windscreen.
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some one should buy some cowboy clamps and go clamp all the councilers jags !
micheal, you’ll do it for a few quid wont ya ?
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i tell you what lets have a country with no rules shall we. lets all do what we like when we like that would make the country a better place now wouldnt it.
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