Number's up for 'Enforcers with no targets' myth
The Scotsman
ALAN RODEN (aroden@edinburghnews.com)
IT'S taken nearly five years - but it appears the truth has finally emerged. Every motorist in the city suspected it - but were constantly told Edinburgh's parking Enforcers do not have targets for the number of fines they hand out.
Oh no, their bosses told the press and public, we don't mind if attendants complete their shifts without ticketing a single driver.
Well, not according to Jake Dacascos. The former parking supervisor lifted the lid last week on the individual and area-wide targets set by his superiors.
He claimed Enforcers are hauled in front of their bosses if they don't fine at least ten motorists a day.
If any doubts were in my mind as to the authenticity of his claims, half-a-dozen current and former Enforcers were straight on the phone to me - the story is 100 per cent accurate, they said.
The council is now rightly worried.
The Evening News today reveals that every single parking attendant and their managers will be individually interviewed by council officials this week in the wake of our exclusive story.
Council leader Ewan Aitken has warned he will "come down like a ton of bricks" on the contractor, Central Parking System (CPS), if the allegations are proved accurate. I hope he means that.
The administration may have been naive if it didn't believe some form of targets existed, but at least it was uncharacteristically swift to order an investigation when Mr Dacascos' claims were published.
Providing the workers with a guarantee of anonymity is an essential part of the council's probe. That is the only way to find out what is really happening, because attendants are strictly banned from divulging any inside information - to the public or the press.
CPS has been enforcing the parking restrictions in Edinburgh since 2001 and it's vital we are told what has been going on behind the scenes for the past five years.
Some might say it's now irrelevant, because CPS is to be kicked out before the end of the year, but I disagree.
While it may be the managers setting the alleged quotas - something I trust NCP will firmly outlaw when it takes over in December - there will clearly be some members of staff transferring to the new operation with ingrained targets on their mind.
A glance through the documents handed to the Evening News by Mr Dacascos shows there are some Enforcers clearly out to top the ticket league table.
C Brown - whoever you are - I hope for your sake that each and every one of the 504 fines you gave to Edinburgh citizens in March was legitimate. The same applies to S Robertson (372) and P Hill (298).
Every now and again, we hear about a ticket that quite clearly should not have been issued - and we usually tell everyone about it in the Evening News.
But, I do wonder how many motorists fork out £30 or even £60 to pay for a fine they should never had received, without realising it?
It can be no coincidence that the large number of Enforcers past and present that I speak to through my job all tell me similar tales: the time on manually-written tickets altered; photos taken at misleading angles to obscure the true picture; foreign number plates created out of thin air.
How many of the 20-odd thousand tickets issued on George Street last year were legitimate?
Nobody is accusing CPS of telling staff to go out there and cheat the motorists, but attendants say they are under such pressure that they sometimes they have no choice.
Some of the under-hand tactics were first revealed in this very column a few months ago. A former Enforcer told me he watched staff take photographs of dashboards with no pay-and-display tickets and then issue fines - even though the tickets had clearly just fallen to the floor.
The stories from other ex-employees who have revealed yet more unscrupulous tactics in today's Evening News are likely to generate considerable debate.
After all, this city has a rather unusual obsession with parking.
Take last Friday, for example - a whole host of national newspapers printed figures showing the number of fines issued on George Street.
Figures that were six months out of date, and had already been printed in this newspaper last May.
And the continuing saga over the roll-out of more parking restrictions in suburban Edinburgh is likely to continue dominating headlines for months to come.
I hope NCP knows what is in store when it comes to Edinburgh this December.
ALAN RODEN (aroden@edinburghnews.com)
IT'S taken nearly five years - but it appears the truth has finally emerged. Every motorist in the city suspected it - but were constantly told Edinburgh's parking Enforcers do not have targets for the number of fines they hand out.
Oh no, their bosses told the press and public, we don't mind if attendants complete their shifts without ticketing a single driver.
Well, not according to Jake Dacascos. The former parking supervisor lifted the lid last week on the individual and area-wide targets set by his superiors.
He claimed Enforcers are hauled in front of their bosses if they don't fine at least ten motorists a day.
If any doubts were in my mind as to the authenticity of his claims, half-a-dozen current and former Enforcers were straight on the phone to me - the story is 100 per cent accurate, they said.
The council is now rightly worried.
The Evening News today reveals that every single parking attendant and their managers will be individually interviewed by council officials this week in the wake of our exclusive story.
Council leader Ewan Aitken has warned he will "come down like a ton of bricks" on the contractor, Central Parking System (CPS), if the allegations are proved accurate. I hope he means that.
The administration may have been naive if it didn't believe some form of targets existed, but at least it was uncharacteristically swift to order an investigation when Mr Dacascos' claims were published.
Providing the workers with a guarantee of anonymity is an essential part of the council's probe. That is the only way to find out what is really happening, because attendants are strictly banned from divulging any inside information - to the public or the press.
CPS has been enforcing the parking restrictions in Edinburgh since 2001 and it's vital we are told what has been going on behind the scenes for the past five years.
Some might say it's now irrelevant, because CPS is to be kicked out before the end of the year, but I disagree.
While it may be the managers setting the alleged quotas - something I trust NCP will firmly outlaw when it takes over in December - there will clearly be some members of staff transferring to the new operation with ingrained targets on their mind.
A glance through the documents handed to the Evening News by Mr Dacascos shows there are some Enforcers clearly out to top the ticket league table.
C Brown - whoever you are - I hope for your sake that each and every one of the 504 fines you gave to Edinburgh citizens in March was legitimate. The same applies to S Robertson (372) and P Hill (298).
Every now and again, we hear about a ticket that quite clearly should not have been issued - and we usually tell everyone about it in the Evening News.
But, I do wonder how many motorists fork out £30 or even £60 to pay for a fine they should never had received, without realising it?
It can be no coincidence that the large number of Enforcers past and present that I speak to through my job all tell me similar tales: the time on manually-written tickets altered; photos taken at misleading angles to obscure the true picture; foreign number plates created out of thin air.
How many of the 20-odd thousand tickets issued on George Street last year were legitimate?
Nobody is accusing CPS of telling staff to go out there and cheat the motorists, but attendants say they are under such pressure that they sometimes they have no choice.
Some of the under-hand tactics were first revealed in this very column a few months ago. A former Enforcer told me he watched staff take photographs of dashboards with no pay-and-display tickets and then issue fines - even though the tickets had clearly just fallen to the floor.
The stories from other ex-employees who have revealed yet more unscrupulous tactics in today's Evening News are likely to generate considerable debate.
After all, this city has a rather unusual obsession with parking.
Take last Friday, for example - a whole host of national newspapers printed figures showing the number of fines issued on George Street.
Figures that were six months out of date, and had already been printed in this newspaper last May.
And the continuing saga over the roll-out of more parking restrictions in suburban Edinburgh is likely to continue dominating headlines for months to come.
I hope NCP knows what is in store when it comes to Edinburgh this December.
posted by Neil Herron at 11:21 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home