Pavement Parking "Stake Out" hits Scout 'Gang Show'

2.08.22pm UTC (GMT +0000) Wed 27th Apr 2005

A Whitton scout troop 'gang show', which was held at Whitton school, turned sour when parents, who had carefully parked their cars for the evening half on the pavement of Percy Road for greater safety, found that they were the victims of parking fines by zealous traffic wardens.

Liberal Democrat candidate Vincent Cable has written to the council on the parents' behalf about the "extreme pettiness" of the fines: "I support the principle of responsible parking, reinforced by legal sanctions; but I have two problems here. First, there are many cases, like this, where motorists use their commonsense to park safely, half off the road, without any inconvenience to pedestrians; but there is no flexibility in the enforcement regime. Second, there is absolutely no reason why wardens should have been patrolling this part of Whitton late in the evening unless it was a 'stake out' designed to catch as many people as possible regardless of the circumstances. The council has written back to say that there is no flexibility under the Traffic Order and that is an end to it".