Now you could get yourself a parking ticket in the time it would take to read everything on the sign.
And then you discover the ticket machine is out of action (someone has attached a "penalty notice" to it!). There was a queue of people waiting to use the one at the other end of the car park.
An attached notice warns parkers to avoid leaving valuables on view (no responsibility - blame the victim).
Another notice informs that the council has donated £100,000 to local charities with money siphoned off the parking charges.
As you have to pay in advance you also have to guess how long you want to park for in order to avoid excess charges.
At times like this I'm glad I'm no longer a car owner.
great, great find indeed. nothing alike over here. please have a good thursday.
ReplyDeleteA pound an hour, that's expensive.
ReplyDeleteWell said Gerald! Whilst I rarely pass a charity collection box without making a donation I prefer being left to decide myself to whom I give MY money. Like all publicly funded organizations Tameside Council is very good at being generous with other people's money. Fortunately I don't often need to park my car in any of Tameside's car parks - and if my memory serves me right the one I use in Stockport is half the cost of the Tameside ones.
ReplyDeleteI have just received a penalty ticket for buying a parking ticket on the machine that Tameside say isn't theirs! I parked on the rough ground nearest the main road and bought the ticket on the patch opposite nearer town - how do you know?
ReplyDeleteI realise the above comment is 9 years old, but although Hyde changes and has been very well documented here by Gerald (thanks Gerald, I have loved your work for some years now) and his photography, some things don't.
ReplyDeleteOnly this week we have recieved a penalty ticket from a company named SIP for parking on the Beeley Street Car Park as it is a private section where all around is council. When I look at the signage, it appears to be deliberately obtuse with the intention of tricking the parking motorist one way or another.
The pay and display signs are similar, the logo being the same colour and approximate position, but probably enough of a difference so the motorist would find it difficult to contest it.
The ticket machines themselves have the same 'Pay Here' signs on the top, in the same colour. There does not appear to be any warning on the council pay and display that if you have parked on the private section to use the different machine otherwise the ticket will not be valid.
The only signs I can see that constitute any warning are a couple of very small notices affixed to the lamp posts on the periphery of the council part of the car park, which warn against purchasing a ticket from the private machine. While physically there, they are not really in a location where everyone will see, but again probably arguably enough to be within the terms of the law. I have obtained this information from Google Maps, but intend to visit the car park with a camera to document the signage fully as I do not intend to pay the private companies £60 parking fee when I have a valid ticket, albeit from the 'wrong' machine.
I think it was a wonderful gesture, the council giving 100,000 to local charities, but it also needs to understand that the fines people are having to pay because of this duplicity is likely to be reducing the money spent in local businesses by reducing the amount people can afford to spend, and possibly reducing the overall footfall in the shopping centre because being duped like that makes people think twice about going there again.
Apologies for this what you may take as a rant, but scouring the internet, there are people unhappy about this, but nobody seems to be doing anything about it, so it's about time it was.
If you read this and agree, the least thing you can do is to write to the council, and it may eventually do something if enough complain.
I don't normally let comments through on old posts such as this one but in this case I've let it through. Further comments however are not encouraged.
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