| |
We’ve little time for TfL
An open letter to the Mayor of London
• DEAR Mr Livingstone. Close to our office there is a loading bay controlled by Transport for London, on which there is a sign allowing up to 20 minutes for loading.
Our office is positioned in Camden Studios, which is in fact almost a mews without a road, entered through a door behind which there is a pathway through the gardens to our office.
On each side of the entrance to Camden Studios there are four- storey blocks of flats.
On three occasions within the past year TfL has ticketed my car and my co-director’s car, which were at the loading bay for the very purpose of loading and unloading. From the nature of the distance to our office and the fact that it is behind a closed door, there is no way the TfL officer could know whether the car is being loaded or unloaded, yet they issue a ticket after observing the car for no more than three minutes. Equally, it would be impossible to know if someone within the adjoining buildings is genuinely loading.
The three-minute “rule” that TfL applies has no basis in law and is an arbitrary limit, unilaterally decided by TfL It is in fact impossible to unload and return to the car within three minutes, not only for us, but for anyone in the flats on either side of our premises, also served by this loading bay, who may have to walk up to the third floor.
Nevertheless, TfL refuses to consider representations, and in the case of my colleague it has refused to consider the fact that he is 74 years old and has a pacemaker. Possibly Dwayne Chambers running with a heavy load and dropping it and running back could get the car off the loading bay within three minutes, otherwise it is impossible.
Then again, perhaps all this is our fault. We are getting on a bit, so maybe we are losing our marbles and don’t understand that when Tfl puts up a sign saying there is a 20-minute limit for loading what that means is that after three minutes you get a ticket for £60 and one minute later your car is loaded up and carted away.
Martin Shaw
Camden Street, NW1
|
 |
|
| |
