'Humane parking' tops list for gobbledygook award (From Your Local Guardian)
Contact us: Got a photo? Text SLPICS to 80360, click to upload your story or see our Contact us page
Richmond Council's 'humane parking' scheme tops list for 'written tripe' award from Plain English Campaign
11:19am Friday 22nd October 2010 in Richmond By Christine Fleming
Human parking: Richmond Council's new scheme tops list for 'written tripe' award from Plain English Campaign
Compassionate, kind and merciful.
Richmond Council is paving the way for equal opportunities – starting with an anti-discrimination drive against cars and their owners.
The council could even see itself win an award for its efforts to launch a new “humane parking” approach – an award for unnecessary use of jargon and gobbledygook, that is.
Marie Clair, spokeswoman from the Plain English Campaign (PEC), said the phrase “humane parking” was a strong contender for one of its annual golden bull awards – the worst examples of “written tripe”.
She said: “Humane parking? That’s a new one. Is that anything to do with not running people over? It would be more humane to stop using new-fangled, gobbledygook labels that tell people nothing useful. “It shouldn’t be necessary to read a page of descriptions to understand two words.”
A spokeswoman for the Campaign Against Political Correctness added: “You wouldn’t think of parking and humane in the same breath would you? I don’t think these things go together at all.”
Despite criticism, the council has stuck by its new scheme, which will transform parking services.
Council leader Nick True said he was “unrepentant” about the choice of words.
He said: “I would say the comments [made by PEC] are plain daft. Humane means civil and courteous and that’s what we want, we want fair common sense community policy [for our parking]. I’m pleased if the title draws attention to what we are doing.”
A “fair parking” package was agreed at a cabinet meeting on October 11.
The council will appoint new parking contractors and wardens would be expected to adopt a common sense and “humane approach” to enforcement in future.
The scheme, estimated to save the council £729,000 per year, would see proposed new company, Vinci Park, providing additional services such as tourist information and guidance on how and where to park to avoid tickets.
Free 30-minute parking for residents and an end to the controversial CO2 related-tax on parked cars was already agreed by the council earlier this year.
In a statement launching the scheme, Councillor True said aggressive money-making parking policies were killing high streets and it was time to turn controlled parking into community parking to help rectify the situation.
Comments(4)
tim_lennon
says...
11:03am Tue 26 Oct 10
Still, it's hard not to sympathise with the Plan English Campaign: even "sensible parking" would put it more accurate than this pompous choice of phrasing.
Scott Naylor
says...
2:03pm Wed 27 Oct 10
So you hate the motor car. Personally I don't, even in Central London you have sufficient parking if you need to get in there.
Freedom lies in the abililty to make your own decisions, putting double yellow lines everywhere you can.
I hope you are registered to come to the Twickenham Conference, so you can come and share your views.
The one question I would like answered, and it is not just limited to one thing, is how come Twickenham has prospered so much from the double-yellow-line treatment wherever possible, and the war on the motorist has clearly worked.
Or has it?
Is it this with a combination of lack of vision, aspiration, a town urban plan, a lack of investment which has caused Twickenham's empty and charity shop demise, or is it the Rugby crowds frightening away the local shopper every major match day that is killing us off?
tim_lennon
says...
2:15pm Thu 28 Oct 10
A massive majority of journeys by car in the outer London borough are less than two miles in length, and you just need to be travelling around Richmond during the week to see the parade of cars taking children to school over distances that are eminently walkable or cyclable.
People are absolutely free to make their decisions on how to do these journeys, but the council should be working a lot harder to persuade them to choose options which cause less pollution, less congestion, and less unfitness. Then perhaps we can reserve car parking for people who do genuinely *need* to get around by car.
Scott Naylor says...
8:07am Sun 24 Oct 10
Humane parking control - bring it on! A parking warden who can converse with the tourist and let the tourist know where our Riverside and Rugby ground is, and how to find a 'shared toilet scheme'.