Bin tax

There is a Regulation that prohibits parking more than 50cm from the edge of the carriageway (usually the kerb) which was brought in to stop double parking, a concept that was harder to define. It is OK if you are within a marked bay which means that councils can still install bays down the middle of very wide roads.

The trouble is that councils, acting by their traffic wardens, forget why the Regulation exists and ticket anything which is more than 50cm from the edge of the carriageway without applying any common sense or thinking of the purpose why the Regulation exists. They blindly ticket any vehicle which breaches the 50cm rule, like this one:

It might look a bit odd from that angle but is a perfectly OK place to park whilst displaying a blue badge as it was. The driver, who won't see 75 again, tells Mr Mustard that he has metal knees and others inform Mr Mustard that walking is hard work for this person.

Now lets see why the car was not nearer to the edge of the carriageway.

Well bless my soul if there aren't 4 large council bins in the way, removing the possibility for the blue badge holder to park out of the way right up to the double yellow lines and to comply with parking regulations. What have the council done about these bins placed on the highway? probably nothing at all (nor about the Biffa one as that would be hypocritical) as they are council bins and the council don't want to create a storage problem for themselves.

I think the  time has come Barnet Council to change your minds about rejecting the motorist's challenge, which you have, cancel his PCN and move the bins so that blue badge holdings motorists can quietly park their cars in this little back street out of the way for up to 3 hours without fear of receiving a PCN.

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard