Ticketed due to long car?
Discussion
I've recently had some vaguely worded chip paper articles show up in my Google feed about several councils banning cars longer than 5m. As my family car is over 5m I clicked through.
When I read into it, it seems the issue is actually ticketing cars for overhanging spaces in car parks (not street parking) that are shorter than the cars. So, if you have a 5.0m car but the space is 4.8m, people are supposedly getting tickets. Now I've never seen anything stating "any car longer than X is too big for our spaces" on the way into a car park, but T&C's usually state "car must be within one bay" or similar.
Has anyone here had such a ticket? Did you appeal it on the basis the car was parked all the way into the bay but the bay was deficient, and what was the outcome?
When I read into it, it seems the issue is actually ticketing cars for overhanging spaces in car parks (not street parking) that are shorter than the cars. So, if you have a 5.0m car but the space is 4.8m, people are supposedly getting tickets. Now I've never seen anything stating "any car longer than X is too big for our spaces" on the way into a car park, but T&C's usually state "car must be within one bay" or similar.
Has anyone here had such a ticket? Did you appeal it on the basis the car was parked all the way into the bay but the bay was deficient, and what was the outcome?
Got a ticket for this in Surbiton about 10 years ago. Looking at the other cars you can see why I had parked there. No signs saying spaces were for certain cars.
Didn't protest. Irked me a bit as this car park was the only place to park as the roads were residents permit only, route around parking was wide enough so not causing obstruction, but on balance thought I was perhaps taking the piss a little bit, so just coughed up for it.
Bobtherallyfan said:
No different than has been the case for van drivers for years. Take up more than one space, buy two tickets.
The distinction is that this isn't about commercial vehicles or stretched vehicles in car parks, but standard cars in car parks.Obviously van drivers have always struggled with this, and I've even seen someone wedge a high-top van against the structure of a multistorey car park so hard they couldn't back out again. But, there's a presumption that when you drive a car into a car park, you can park that car.
donkmeister said:
I wouldn't describe that as you taking the piss, a Ford Fiesta wouldn't fit in there.
The best thing is I've just looked up that car park out of curiosity (St Philips Road, Surbiton), and the view on google streetview shows that they have since repainted the bays and made them longer!WelshPetrolhead said:
Got a ticket for this in Surbiton about 10 years ago. Looking at the other cars you can see why I had parked there. No signs saying spaces were for certain cars.
Didn't protest. Irked me a bit as this car park was the only place to park as the roads were residents permit only, route around parking was wide enough so not causing obstruction, but on balance thought I was perhaps taking the piss a little bit, so just coughed up for it.
It depends on the council. I often visit one council area and recently they introduced the 5-metre ruling, so I decided to check what their regns actually said (not trusting journos to be accurate).
Their car-park regulations extend to nearly 130-pages (ever wondered what council staff actually do?). However, only approx. 12-pages cover the actual rules but tucked away, in one subsection of just three lines it states that no vehicle in excess of 5-metres length may use a car park unless it is specifically stated as permitted on the signage. If permitted and over 5-metres, it must either fit completely into one bay or pay for all parking bays occupied or partially occupied.
As they often use internet-linked machines to issue tickets now, do they have access to vehicle dimensions, as the ferry cos. etc. do?
Of course, they could lengthen the bays, but I don't think that ever enters their thoughts: a cynic might think that might be because that costs money whereas not changing them raises money.
Their car-park regulations extend to nearly 130-pages (ever wondered what council staff actually do?). However, only approx. 12-pages cover the actual rules but tucked away, in one subsection of just three lines it states that no vehicle in excess of 5-metres length may use a car park unless it is specifically stated as permitted on the signage. If permitted and over 5-metres, it must either fit completely into one bay or pay for all parking bays occupied or partially occupied.
As they often use internet-linked machines to issue tickets now, do they have access to vehicle dimensions, as the ferry cos. etc. do?
Of course, they could lengthen the bays, but I don't think that ever enters their thoughts: a cynic might think that might be because that costs money whereas not changing them raises money.
ruhall said:
Their car-park regulations extend to nearly 130-pages (ever wondered what council staff actually do?). However, only approx. 12-pages cover the actual rules but tucked away, in one subsection of just three lines it states that no vehicle in excess of 5-metres length may use a car park unless it is specifically stated as permitted on the signage. If permitted and over 5-metres, it must either fit completely into one bay or pay for all parking bays occupied or partially occupied.
We're the rules on display in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying 'Beware of the Leopard.'? 
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