I have never shared the popular view of traffic wardens – possibly because I was shacked up with one for a couple of years – but always felt that they are, at worst, a necessary evil.
Although they are the target of much hostility I always suspected that those who complain about them would have even more to complain about if traffic wardens didn’t exist, and this story in today’s Guardian seems to prove the point nicely.
The gist of it is that Tewkesbury’s only traffic warden was suspended, word got around, and now the town’s car parks are empty any there is practically gridlock as cars occupy every double yellow line and loading bay available.
In case this sounds like a case of Guardian anti-car propaganda, the same story is described by Yahoo! News thus:
Drivers have reduced a quiet English market town to motor mayhem in the Christmas shopping rush, shamelessly cashing in while the only local traffic warden is suspended
And the Daily Mail has a similar tone:
The parking free-for-all has brought chaos to Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire, as motorists take full advantage of the unpatrolled streets by parking on double yellow lines and in loading bays.
I still can’t believe I looked at the Daily Mail website. I shall have to pluck out my eyeballs now.
And then dip them in Dettol.
And then never look at me with them…..