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West End Extra - LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Published: 23 October 2009

A ticket to hide? ‘Parking attendants’ do have targets

• THE councillor’s letter (One ticket an hour for drivers’ illegal parking, October 9) raises serious concerns about whether Danny Chalkley, cabinet member for city management, is aware of what is actually happening on the ground as regards parking in Westminster.
We strongly disagree with his remarks and demand that the councillor should resign and Westminster rescind the contract with NSL Services for making claims that “Westminster City Council does not set targets for the number of tickets issued by parking attendants” and “takes the working conditions of all staff very seriously”.
Well, if Westminster does not set targets then what does “Our parking attendants issue an average of just one parking ticket per hour to motorists who are parked illegally” mean?
Clearly this statement confirms that there is a target, as we had insisted, and we are under enormous pressure to meet the target.
This is just the tip of the iceberg.
The councillor seems to have forgotten that the Traffic Management Act 2004, which came into operation in England on March 31 2008, replaced the name of “Parking Attendant” with that of the “Civil Enforcement Officer”.
Thus, calling Westminster’s on-street parking staff “Parking Attendants” suggests that Danny Chalkley is either clever or ignorant of the traffic law that he himself put in place.
In Westminster the working conditions of CEOs are appalling in contrary to the councillor’s remark.
There is overcrowding due to mass staff recruitment and toilets, microwaves and chairs could not cope with the demand.
Equipments (radios, cameras, hand-held computers) are either not working or out of supply, and let alone poor pay as well as the existence of the Bradford Factor – an illegal method of managing absences.
All these compounded with the lack of training make our work very difficult. Also, CEOs are often moved from base to base as a way of cost cutting.
Civil Enforcement Officer Westminster
Name and address supplied

Send your letters to: The Letters Editor, West End Extra, 40 Camden Road, London, NW1 9DR or email to letters@westendextra.co.uk. The deadline for letters is midday Wednesday. The editor regrets that anonymous letters cannot be published, although names and addresses can be withheld.
Please include a full name, postal address and telephone number.
Letters may be edited for reasons of space.

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