I READ the article regarding the man given a parking ticket by the local officer (the 'Post', January 15) and have every sympathy for his plight. During the freezing weather of Christmas week I watched as a lady parked her car in front of my workplace. It was a tight fit but she, after some to-ing and fro-ing, managed to get in and parked her car taking her excited family to do some Christmas shopping.
A short time later a woman in a modern blue uniform with 'technological' attachments wrote out a traffic violation ticket and placed it on the car as a small part of the rear wheel was on the pavement. I was amazed as the pavement there is very wide and the kerb shallow and it would surprise me if she would even notice the little bit of the rear wheel on the pavement. Wing mirrors stick much further out and are much more of an obstruction.
I didn't see her when she returned but imagine that she was very upset — as any reasonable person would have been. I assumed that ticket provider was a member of the police force and was just being over zealous but after writing to voice my disgust to the police locally they informed me that the well equipped gendarmerie is merely a council employee and replaces the traffic wardens but without their people skills and grace.
What a huge change from my first years in Bude when a traffic warden called Tom would help vehicles unload on Belle Vue in order to keep traffic moving and at Christmas would put a Christmas card in the windscreen of cars he recognised. Usually a quick warning would persuade those of us who left a vehicle inappropriately to move it quickly and he was respected by motorists and tickets when issued were paid with a smile. Result, warden respected and therefore the law was respected.
It was Christmas week in a year when traders in Bude needed every pound that people could spend but because of this over-zealous mean behaviour another family will have gone out muttering about the police state and probably deciding never to park in such a town when she can park easily, freely and without problem in some out of town shopping site. Result official disrespected and the law disrespected.
Haven't the 'powers that be' ever heard of warning notes (as used by the police with yellow card system?) With the new computer systems it would be easy to see if someone had received a previous warning and therefore well deserved the penalty.
The only reason I can see for such petty draconian action, especially during Christmas week is that the lady in blue had some council imposed targets to meet and — perish the thought — may have got a bonus for every booking made! Whilst this would be denied by Cornwall County Council, word on the street is there is an inducement to staff for booking petty traffic violations. Certainly when they are around in Bude they are like vultures circling their prey ready to empty the purses and wallets of overburdened taxpayers.
Hopefully the new unitary authority will take a more customer friendly attitude to us — the paying public — and use some discretion when executing government inspired punishments on the long-suffering public. They'll be fining us for dropping cigarette ash outside shops next! And I'm a non-smoker.
Bude.