Parking Harassment

With the zone parking scheme making parking more and more scarce for those who must use their vehicles to get about Gibraltar it is clear that Government has also been targeting motorists with a zero-tolerance policy on illegal parking since September 2016, this is leading to an enormous number of tickets being issued erroneously.

There is no question that motorist should park correctly and that illegal parking is unacceptable but many people are being preyed upon by traffic wardens who are quite literally waiting in ambush to catch people out for being in the wrong place minutes too long. The zero tolerance policy commenced in 2016 and has seen the number of parking tickets issued each month almost triple and the number of clampings rise from virtually zero to over 300 a month. Whatever instructions they have, it is clear that traffic wardens have been told to issue as many tickets as possible, a nice little earner for a Government desperate for money to fund its overspend.

Trevor Hammond, GSD transport spokesman said “I asked a question in Parliament in May regarding the number of rescinded parking tickets and was told that in the eight months up to May, the RGP had rescinded 933 parking tickets. That is, 933 tickets that were erroneously placed and 933 occasions when both the police and the public have had to waste their time because those enforcing parking did not do their job properly. It is unacceptable that there appears to be no accountability for this absurdly high number of mistakes and you have to wonder how many people have paid fines when quite possibly they should not have.

“Government must take this matter in hand and make sure that wardens are being properly trained and that there is some accountability for mistakes which are happening with far to great a frequency. The service must be improved so police and public do not have to waste their time correcting mistakes. The public should look very carefully at fines issued and be prepared to challenge as it is clear that many mistakes are being made”