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The Parking Ticket

12 June, 2010 by James Lawther Leave a Comment

I was running late.

I nipped into the city centre in my wife’s company car.

I found a parking space put money in the meter and ran.

20 minutes later I caught the yellow peril giving me a parking ticket.

I was on a yellow line (just).

I tried to sweet talk him, but I ran out of charm.

He suggested I wrote to the parking fine office and disputed the ticket.

So I did.

3 months later they sent me a letter.

My dispute wasn’t upheld because I had parked in a bus lane at 10pm at night.

They attached a photo of the car as proof.

It showed a time of 11am and a car parked (marginally) on the yellow lines by a meter, no bus lane in sight.

So I disputed my failed dispute.

The parking fine office apologised

They said they would look into it.

3 months later the bailiffs turned up at my wife’s company demanding payment of the fine.

My wife wasn’t very impressed.

So I gave in and paid.

A true story, but the point?

Can government cut spending?

Maybe, but only if they make their service better.

Photo by hara gopal on Unsplash

Filed Under: Blog, Process Improvement Tagged With: bureaucracy, capability, local government, poor service

About the Author

James Lawther
James Lawther

James Lawther is a middle-aged, middle manager.

To reach this highly elevated position he has worked in numerous industries, from supermarket retailing to tax collecting.  He has had several operational roles, including running the night shift in a frozen pea packing factory and carrying out operational research for a credit card company.

As you can see from his C.V. he has either a wealth of experience or is incapable of holding down a job.  If the latter is true this post isn’t worth a minute of your attention.

Unfortunately, the only way to find out is to read it and decide for yourself.

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