This beautiful photo from Mr Clix (we know his real name but he would prefer to keep it quiet for now) shows the area in Leith where he parked his car as he usually does on an unregulated street on Wednesday this week, went off to work and then returned some hours later to find a ‘parking ticket’ on his car.
On closer inspection the ticket was issued by UK Parking Control Limited, and not Lothian and Borders Police or the parking attendants employed by The City of Edinburgh Council. Mr Clix has parked his car here when working nearby for a number of years now with no such problem. He contacted us mainly to highlight it to our readers.
He has already taken the ‘ticket’ to the local police who have confirmed that they believe that the street is public and that UKPC have no jurisdiction there to issue him with a parking charge. A sign has mysteriously appeared on the street stating that it is now private, although no-one has yet confirmed that they erected the sign.
We tried to telephone UKPC for a comment but they preferred correspondence by email. We are still waiting for a response although we will publish it if we get one.
A spokesman for Edinburgh Council said:-“These streets are fully adopted with no parking restrictions in place.
We also spoke to Transport Convenor, Councillor Gordon Mackenzie who said:-“It sounds like this isn’t legal. If it’s an adopted road the only authority who can carry out ticket enforcement are the Council (or their contractor). Our contractor is NSL, not UK Parking Ltd. To the best of my recollection there hasn’t been any Stopping Up Order either (the only way you can turn an adopted road into something else) so I strongly suspect that the signs have been put up by the parking company and/or the residents at Salamander Court.”
Deputy Provost and local Councillor Rob Munn said earlier that he was alerted to this issue only yesterday and has asked the Roads Department to investigate. Councillor Munn continued:-“I find this concerning and want to get to the bottom of it. It would seem that it may be down to over zealous action by UK Parking Control Ltd and I will be seeking clarification on this matter.” Councillor Munn then updated us later this afternoon that he had been out to the street and noted that two cars have tickets today.
The Neighbourhood Manager Mike Penny confirmed that a roads inspector will visit the location and remove the signs.
Was it your car? Then do let us know how you get on.
Mr Clix has other photos on Blipfoto, and you can read his own full account of what happened here.
“This enforcement company has put up the signs without permission, and we will now see if the signs can be removed.” So says our glorious Council! Eh, wake up, idiots, they need the permission from you in the first place. The sign is illegal, it’s fraud, they’re breaking the law. Why the heck aren’t the boys in blue round at the CEO’s door putting the cuffs on him/her right now? Oh, I forgot, it’s a motorist that’s been wrongly penalised, so you can’t expect any help from the police, can you? Tell you what, when I’m next down Salamander Court I’ll see if the sign can be removed. It should take about ten seconds. It never fails to amaze me how quickly our so called public servants are ready to persecute the citizens of this town, and so unwilling to defend them in the face of blatant criminal behaviour like this. Oh, and if the sign was erected by a resident of Salamander Court – I hope your next visit to the supermarket is two hours and one second, and you can enjoy all to yourself the attention of Parking Nazis PLC, you hypocrites.
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