I love this story. It seems that from Monday, teachers and parents outside Essex schools will be able to act as traffic wardens with the power to issue tickets. In what must rank as one of the greatest understatements of all time, a teaching union has warned:
…it could create conflict between staff and some parents.
I’ve mentioned this story before, but when I was working on tech support we dealt with calls from all over the country – sometimes, even from outside the UK. I think I can safely say that callers from Essex were generally the most obnoxious and aggressive of the lot. In one particular case, just after we’d had a new phone system installed which didn’t work too well, I answered one particular call with my usual cheery greeting, only to be answered with a tirade of abuse about how long he’d been waiting (a ridiculous 90 minutes). I explained that I understood his frustration and apologised to him, but I explained we had a new call handling system which had a few teething troubles that were outside the control of the support agents. His response was “don’t give me that”, and he went off again in his crass Ilford accent. I just said: “OK. You can wait another 90 minutes” and hung up.
There’s a pretty good chance this guy – and plenty of others like him – turning up in their Chelsea tractors and parking wherever they damn well like (which is why this is happening in Essex in the first place) will not take that kindly to having their crassness highlighted by others.
Thurrock council has a rose-tinted view of the potential problems:
We have teachers, parents and residents telling us time and again about frighteningly dangerous parking outside schools, but we don’t have the money to have an army of traffic wardens.
There are teachers and head teachers who try to marshal the traffic already and what they’ve said to us is that if they have the authority to issue a ticket, it’s another weapon in their armoury.
I think we will get volunteers because issuing a ticket will be the last resort – it’s about talking and cajoling people to change their behaviour and I would be delighted if we never issue a single ticket.
What planet is this moron from? It’s Essex, with Essex mothers (and fathers) involved. The problem is so widespread that they have teachers, parents, and residents reporting serious parking problems ”time and again”. And he hopes that “talking and cajoling” will avoid the need to issue “a single ticket”? Why doesn’t HE sort it out instead of leaving it to the teachers? It’s his bloody job to handle it.
I wonder if I could get good odds on predicting when the first physical conflict will place?