Illegal parking on Wade Street
Illegal parking on Wade Street

They say a picture speaks a thousand words. For me, this picture speaks only two: miserable failure.

It shows ten (yes, ten) vehicles all double parked and sat on double yellow lines. No APCOA tickets were present on any of them and that shiny looking police car you see driving through the middle of them subsequently drove straight past and into the station, completely ignoring the mass flouting of traffic laws.

The APCOA scheme has been introduced to crack down on problem parkers. As Staffordshire County Council’s cabinet member for road safety said when launching the Clear Streets scheme which saw the introduction of the wardens:

“No-one likes to get a parking ticket but the majority of people do understand that we can’t have a parking free for all. We have to have regulation to protect public safety. Yellow lines are there for a reason. Poor parking can kill.”

Given this shocking example of a complete failure to reign in illegal parkers can we really believe that the introduction of APCOA will really change anything? Situations like this certainly don’t inspire confidence.

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LichfieldBlog (Lichfield Blog)
15 years ago

new parking enforcement doesn’t seem to be working in Lichfield – post by @Phil: http://tinyurl.com/dz5dzb

captain tom
15 years ago

Yes a complete waste of time in my opinion. Spending tens of thousands of pounds enforcing parking in the city is ridiculous. The powers at be could of spent some money on trying to get more people in to Lichfield to spend their money. If you look at this picture you can see the recently closed ‘couch potato’ restaurant, in the last twelve months this business had to try and pay its £20,000 + rates bill, while the ‘development’ of the end of wade street, made it uncomfortable for its customers to dine in peace while the dust and the noise from the ongoing ‘works’ made it difficult to even use that area of Wade Street. But on a good note, the road works led to the double yellow line outside ‘couch potato’ being broken, and when I last looked still not repaired, so due to the law, free parking!

Das
14 years ago

I think you should go and get a life mate. Instead of walking around lichfield stalking traffic wardens. I work in that area everyday, and it doesn’t usually look like that. Did you also check whether there were any Blue Disabled parking badges in the car windows. Also, screw parking in lichfield, first of all we need to sort out the murdering chavs and anti social behavior. I’ve never seen somebody die from a parked car.Yes it can be seen as a waste of money but then again, most things are. There are alot more important things going on in the world right now, other than the usual boring, moany folk that seem to populate lichfield. All in all, try getting out and enjoying life a bit more.

captain tom
14 years ago

das, do you mean me ‘get a life’?
I hope not! I well up for sorting chavs and ASB! Just think you might of missed the point of my comment.

Julie Kaine
14 years ago

Perhaps having pay and display machines which work might help. In the past 48 hours I have used 2 both of which have taken my money but no ticket! I took the time to leave a note inside and then phone the ’emergency number’ listed on the Pay and Display board which took me to a Cannock Chase advisor who assured me there would be no fine to pay……

Figures show number of tickets issued by new Lichfield parking wardens
14 years ago

[…] the changes have been criticised after vehicles were photographed parking illegally around the corner from Lichfield’s main police […]

pat
14 years ago

Phil are u really trying to say that blue badge holder can not park on double yellow lines?
Problem with this website filled with people that have no clue in regards to rules of the road!!
The 3 disbaled bays you mention outside the entrace to council, which ill add is only 1 bay is an “advisory disabled” bay.. if you don’t know what one is then again i suggest before posting comments on websites u research before commenting!

And as for the photo are we sure its a photo of cars parked in wade st? really… I thought the street photo’d is Castle Dyke? sigh!

pat
14 years ago

oops my bad thought u ment wade not bore on the disbaled bays! very right no-one can be parked in disabled bays in bore appologies

weeble
14 years ago

The answer is simple.

Stop spending money on parking. Money should be spent on better public transport, footpaths & cycle routes.
There is far to much traffic in town as it is. Yes the minority do need to park close to town due to ill health etc. The majority could leave the cars at home and enjoy a stroll into town.

Mrs Woffington
14 years ago

A blue-badge-holder can park on a double yellow for a fixed amount of time, provided the badge is displayed and the clock on it shows what time they parked. If you have lung disease and can’t walk a few steps without gasping for breath, what’s the point of parking in Bore Street when you’re going to Wade Street? Disabled drivers really need parking close to the destination, hence the ability to park on double yellows, but that doesn’t mean to say they can leave the cars there all day.

Christopher Banks
13 years ago

A few weeks ago I mentioned to 2 police officers at the bottom of Tamworth Street / Lombard Street about cars right in front of them on double yellow lines, and there reply was it’s not there responsibility but the responsibility of the council, so much for law enforcement.

Christopher Banks
13 years ago

If the multi storey car park was in sudden danger of collapse 5 months ago, why is it still standing, and how come all of a sudden as reported a couple of weeks ago in the mercury it can be repaired. If it’s in such a dangerous state surely under Health and safety laws it’s too dangerous for workers to enter and patch it up.
This is part of the reason there are parking problems in Lichfield a car park being closed that can hold over 400 vehicles.

Streethay Swampy
13 years ago

Why can’t Lichfield follow Cannock’s idea,

“Some charges for the council-run multi-storey car park in Cannock town centre will fall from the beginning of June.

Cannock Chase Council is taking steps to encourage trade in its market hall off Church Street.

From June 1 the charge for a stay of up to one hour in the five-storey car park will fall from 80p to 60p. The charge for one to two hours will be cut from £1.60 to £1. A new charge of £2.40 for two to three hours is being introduced. The existing all day charge of £3.20 will remain as will the season ticket rates.”

LDC lower your charges and you may attract more people to park legally and attract more shoppers!

Ryan
13 years ago

Right for starters that’s frog lane in Lichfield And all those cars are parked in limited wait bays the police can’t enforce double yellow lines they can only enforce obstruction. Too many people talking about stuff they have no idea about…

Ryan
13 years ago

No wait it is wade street but there still limited wait bays any way you can stay there for half hour

Bruce Kain
13 years ago

So, the police car did nothing and drove straight into the station ? This could mean one of several things.

1. His fish and chip lunch was going cold.
2. The Chief Super told them to go and get him a ‘Subway’ and look sharp about it.
3. ‘A place in the sun’ or ‘Flog it’ was about to start on tv.
4. The driver suffers from IBS and needed the loo.

But, the answer is more obvious than that, the PC driving the car knew that if he stopped at the top of the street and pointed his radar gun at the cars ………. ‘ nothing would happen’, so he drove on.

Ryan
13 years ago

Mate the police can’t enforce double yellow lines there’s nothing they can do about them