Wasps of the Parking World

Last Thursday I opted to pay by text message for parking in Islington. A simple process (once registered) that I think has really made parking a whole heap easier in London (no more scrabbling for coins etc!) but thanks to the over-zealous nature of a Civil Enforcement Officer (or Traffic Warden as everyone else would call them) on behalf of Islington Council, I was given a ticket despite having paid!

Why? Because the CEO (to abbreviate their glorified title) decided to wait less than 60 seconds from when I parked! It takes their own systems 2 minutes to confirm the payment so...how does this behaviour help anyone? All it does if frustrate honest, tax-paying drivers to despise once again the wasps of the parking world and condemn a Council for creating paperwork for their appeals department (cost to the tax payer), waste my time (cost to my business), print a needless ticket and associated paperwork (cost to the environment).

If drivers could hand out tickets to the councils for wasting their time when they've done nothing wrong, then Islington Council would be getting one from us today. Come to think of it, what a great idea that would be....!