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Camden News - by RICHARD OSLEY
Published: 5 June 2008

CCTV cars parked on double yellow lines

Busted again? The wardens ‘parking’ on yellow lines

Angry motorists hit the street with their cameras and catch ‘illegally’ parked CCTV cars

IF you thought drivers hated getting stung with a parking ticket more than anything else, think again.
What they really hate, it turns out, is watching Camden’s parking wardens helping themselves to the borough’s best parking spots – yellow lines or no yellow lines.
The hunted became the hunters this week when a host of drivers sent in pictures of the Town Hall’s CCTV enforcement cars parking up in spots that would be out of bounds to any other vehicle.
It follows the New Journal’s scoop picture last week which showed how one of the cars, which are supposed to be roving Camden in search of rule-breaking drivers, sat stationary in College Crescent, Swiss Cottage.
Parking chiefs last night (Wednesday) defiantly insisted their cars could park where they liked as long as it was in the line of duty.
They said investigations would only be launched if wardens were found to be acting inappropriately – for example, if a driver was found having a quick snooze in the front seat.
But the explanation does not wash with motorists who believe it’s just a case of one law for them, and another for the council.
Fred Johnson, who grabbed photos of a CCTV car in Compayne Gardens, West Hampstead, last Wednesday afternoon (see above), said: “Ironically, there was a parking warden issuing penalty notices nearby and when I pointed out that he should be issuing a ticket to his comrades, he looked at me as if I was asking him to murder his mother.”
The car has already been photographed parking on double yellows in Englands Lane in Belsize Park – a neighbourhood where spaces to park are at a premium and finding one is a daily scramble.
This week’s batch of photos fired through to the New Journal included several snaps captured in Camley Street, King’s Cross, where wardens have regularly enjoyed the luxury of parking on double yellows in an otherwise empty road over the past few months.
A council press official said yesterday that there was specific enforcement action being taken around Camley Street because drivers were flouting the rules.
She said: “Certain council vehicles carry a permit which enables them to park anywhere in the borough, including on double yellow lines if it is for the purpose of carrying out enforcement duties.
“Our drivers have strict instructions that they should only park on double yellows when it is both necessary and safe for them to do so.”

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