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Islington Tribune - by PETER GRUNER
Published: 21 September 2007

Traffic wardens gather round the car in Clerkenwell Green.

One car and six wardens. Is this a record?

We’re harassed by ‘ticketing academy’s predatory recruits’, say drivers

HOW many traffic wardens does it take to issue a parking ticket? Answer: one warden issues the ticket – the other five stand around and watch.
The photograph of six NCP traffic wardens, working for Islington Council, was captured in Clerkenwell Green on Tuesday morning.
The wardens are mostly trainees learning the tricks of the trade at the council’s new parking office – or “ticketing academy” as it is dubbed by residents – at nearby Old Street.
But residents have said the large groups of wardens on the look-out for parking infringements are “intimidating”.
They complain that they have the highest parking charges in the borough and are being “harassed” by “predatory” wardens who comb the area.
Clerkenwell Green is popular with tourists from all over the world who visit the Karl Marx Memorial Library and St James’s Church, along with the area’s many pubs and restaurants.
Lesley Craze, who has a jewellery gallery in Clerkenwell Green, complains that parking controls in the area are draconian.
She said: “It’s not surprising that business is suffering and parking wardens are having a field day. People who come here already pay £8 congestion charge. On top of that they pay £4 to park for an hour on a meter.
“These wardens are roaming in groups all the time. Islington Council recently declared that parking rules were being liberalised. That’s definitely not the case in Clerkenwell Green.
“Come here on Saturday morning. It’s the day when visitors think that it’s free parking. Of course, it’s not free parking and wardens know that it is a good day to catch people.
“This quiet, beautiful square is inundated with these meter people all the time.”
Another resident, solicitor Michael Turner, appealed to the Town Hall to relax the parking rules to encourage more visitors.
“It’s true cars are not towed away like they used to be,” he said. “But people are always being ticketed. They will stop coming to the area if they think they are going to get a ticket every time. It’s bad for business.”
A spokesman for NCP confirmed that the wardens were trainees from a nearby parking office learning the ropes. “I’m sorry if the wardens appeared intimidating but they have to learn to do the job.”

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