Soltalk June 2017 | Page 26

Jottings News from the UK and around the World . . . the wild, the wacky, the wonderful, the weird and the downright infuriating Yellow Perils Two traffic wardens caused outrage last month after fining a pensioner dropping his wife at hospital while their own vehicle was parked on double yellow lines. The parking enforcement officers were seen giving the elderly man a £60 ticket in Kirkcaldy, Fife. A passer-by took a photograph of the scene and accused the workers of “hypocrisy” when he posted the image on-line. He said the car owner, “who must have been in his eighties, was running across the road to tell the female warden that he’d only been parked for two minutes.” Fife Council responded, “I would remind motorists that it is an offence to park on double yellow lines at any time,” but added that, “parking attendants are exempt from most parking restrictions whilst carrying out their duties.” Incidentally, Scottish Councils made over £40 million in profits from parking tickets during 2016. We thought you should know. But it only gets better. A driver who was forced to leave her car behind because it was stuck inside a police cordon in Leicester city centre during February returned to find she had been issued a parking ticket. Police investigating an incident had cordoned off a section of Belvoir Street, including the part where the car was parked. Abigail Smith asked permission 24 from a police officer to retrieve her car but was refused. The next day when she returned to her car it had a £70 parking ticket stuck to the windscreen. So she e-mailed Leicester City Council, who issued the ticket, and explained that her car had been trapped inside a police cordon. But the council replied stating that the parking ticket would stand, and a council spokesman added that it had been issued after the cordon was removed. Abigail said she had been advised to wait until the council took her to court over the matter and to defend herself there but she has since received a letter from the counci