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.
