Motorist's anger after seeing traffic warden on double yellow lines
AN eagle-eyed motorist claims he was sworn at and threatened by a traffic warden after he took a photograph of the council official stopped on double yellow lines.
But Derby City Council say the warden was not parked illegally and at the time was checking that a different car was carrying its blue disabled badge.
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The vehicle belonging to the Derby City Council traffic warden who stopped on double yellow lines in Stanton Street.
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Waqias Bhatti taking a picture with his mobile phone by the set of double yellow lines on Stanton Street in Normanton.
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The vehicle belonging to the Derby City Council traffic warden who stopped on double yellow lines in Stanton Street.
Waqias Bhatti said he was driving through Normanton when he spotted the council vehicle parked illegally.
He took out his mobile phone and snapped the Streetpride van which had the warden sitting inside.
Mr Bhatti, 27, said the warden leaned out of the window and swore at him before saying: "I can have you done for this."
Mr Bhatti, who sprays cars for a living, then called the police to the incident, but the warden had driven off by the time they arrived.
He has reported the matter to Derby City Council.
Mr Bhatti, of Porter Street, said: "Anyone who lives in the area will tell you the parking problems are dreadful, so to see a council official parked so blatantly on double yellow lines is appalling.
"This is someone in a position of authority whose job it is to help solve the parking problem in the area, not add to it by parking in this way.
"He thinks he is above the law."
Mr Bhatti said the incident happened in Stanton Street.
A spokesman for Derbyshire police said officers had spoken to Mr Bhatti.
He said: "We received a call to say that a council vehicle was parked illegally on double yellow lines and the caller said he had taken a photograph of it.
"He then told officers that the warden had been aggressive towards him and that he felt intimidated."
A spokesman for Derby City Council said at the time of the incident the parking supervisor, an experienced member of staff, was not parked illegally.
Instead he had stopped for two minutes while he checked, from his vehicle, whether a different vehicle, parked on double yellow lines, was displaying a blue disabled person's badge.
He said: "While the parking supervisor was doing this, another vehicle drove past him and stopped in the middle of the road preventing him from proceeding.
"The driver of this other vehicle got out of his car and accused the parking supervisor of parking on double yellow lines and insisted that he get out of his vehicle.
"The parking supervisor did this and at this point the photograph was taken by the other driver.
"The GPRS records used by the council show that less than two minutes elapsed between the parking supervisor driving into and subsequently leaving Stanton Street – hence as this time includes the time for the incident to occur, it is clear our vehicle was not parked."
12 Comments
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by Rob09
Thursday, July 21 2011, 8:54PM
“A sense of proportion is called for here. The traffic wardens clearly have a job to do, so a 2 minute parking time seems fair enough to me. Yes, he could have parked a couple of streets away, but the further away he parks, the less time he has to investigate other possible offences.
Obviously if he swore at Mr.Bhatti, then that is unacceptable, but there seems to be no evidence that he did, other than Mr.Bhatti's comments.”
by Fasty
Thursday, July 21 2011, 7:13PM
“"while he checked, from his vehicle, whether a different vehicle, parked on double yellow lines, was displaying a blue disabled person's badge"
And how could he do this correctly from inside his vehicle? Surely most disabled badges are displayed lying flat on the dashboard? We've even seen ridiculous cases of disabled motorists being prosecuted because the badge was upside-down.
I dunno, we'll be seeing scamera vans (sorry, safety camera vans) parked on the grass verge next ;)”
by onnhoj2010
Thursday, July 21 2011, 1:54PM
“Highway Code rule 238: "Double yellow lines indicate a prohibition of waiting at any time"
It's nothing to do with whether the vehicle was not "parked". The city council spokesman doesn't know what he's talking about and the driver clearly was committing an offence. Surprised no-one bothered to check this for the story.”
by eric9629
Thursday, July 21 2011, 1:24PM
“Does this story warrant over half a page on page 3 , the picture shows about 12 inch of double yellows the rest of the road they have clearly worn out, get a life Mr Bhatti and get some proper news D.E.T , what other stupid stories are you going to publish , if you can't fill the pages with news you publish or some stupid photo taken by someone else who has nothing better to do than take close up photos of a flower which you then use to fill in the page with instead of getting your reporters out there looking for real stories.”
by Defenses
Thursday, July 21 2011, 1:14PM
“Color blindness or color vision deficiency is the decreased ability to perceive differences between some of the colors that others can distinguish.
Free eye tests may be a advantage for all City Council Employees!! Selective seeing is not an option sorry!
Angry motorist you should be up for the OBE award!”
by Defenses
Thursday, July 21 2011, 1:08PM
“Color blindness or color vision deficiency is the decreased ability to perceive differences between some of the colors that others can distinguish.
Free eye tests may be a advantage for all City Council Employees!! Selective seeing is not an option sorry!
Angry motorist you should be up for the OBE award!”
by Defenses
Thursday, July 21 2011, 1:08PM
“DooScoobie are you the traffic warden?
Why are you so negative about the story or have you not had a ticket in your life time”
by NORMANTONEYE
Thursday, July 21 2011, 12:38PM
“Message to the chap who wrote that Mr. Bhatti should grow up clearly indicates that the message is sent by a member of the city council because no one else seems to have a problem with the Mr.Bhatti. Nice try derby city council. YOU BEEN FRAMED!”
by NORMANTONEYE
Thursday, July 21 2011, 12:36PM
“This is an absolute abuse of the traffic laws and it discusts me to even read the fact the derby city council say it is ok for a traffic warden to park on double yellow lines for even two minuets. In retro respect this wouldnt have been the case if it was the other way round. The traffic warden should receive the sack and even pay a parking fine. I support the individual who took this picture and to bring it alight.
The council should take back what they have said about parking for two minuets is allowed when it is automatically breaking the law.”
by SpiritaTenant
Thursday, July 21 2011, 11:46AM
“A friend of mine was ticketed for the same reason "stopping for a few seconds on patchy double yellow lines". So if he was done then this car is beaking the law. What is wrong with the traffic warden parking elseware and "walking" back to check the disabled badge?
Also if he wasn't "parked" another vehicle wouldn't have blocked him in would it?
2 minutes is still parking. 1 minute is parking. 30 seconds is parking.
Mind you if he was ticketed we'd have to pay anyway.”