We are The Mob, we can park anywhere!

On Friday 11^th November 2016, I was driving from Llandudno back to Conwy, when coming through Deganwy along Station Rd, there was a police vehicle parked on double yellow lines reg: CX65 CLY parked outside the Post Office, right opposite to where you would turn to go on to the beach, the police vehicle was causing an obstruction and other motorists had to go around it, the time of this incident was 11:45, I waited over 15 minutes to have a word with the officer, to point out the difficulties he was causing the other motorists, in the end I had to leave, I did check along the shops but I couldn’t see him.

I later contacted 101 and reported this incident, I got an event number (U171290) and I told the lady I was talking to, please don’t come back to me and say it was for policing purposes, why he was parked there because it was a non-emergency, there were no blue lights flashing and there was no officer in sight, I also told the lady whoever was driving the police vehicle, they would only have needed to drive another 6 meters forward and they would have been parked in a parking bay and also to the right hand side there is a car park. I also said he may have gone for his dinner to a café and just a few doors up from the post office is a Thai massage parlour, I thought to myself he may be in there as not so long ago a local officer used his police vehicle to go shopping for an hour and 45 minutes, so you never know!!

After I finished the conversation with the lady, she said she would get her supervisor to call me back from the control room, which he did, he did say ‘Mr Creamer, the officer was doing police duties’ but accepted it was a non-emergency and he shouldn’t have been parked on double yellow lines, he also said would I be happy if he got the officer’s sergeant to speak to him and give him a word of advice about his manner of parking.

I feel sorry for the thousands of people who get parking tickets everyday around the UK, it’s a shame the traffic warden doesn’t just give them a word of advice, no they get a fine.

Later on that day, I called to the Post Office on Station Road, Deganwy, as the supervisor from the control room said that was where he had been on policing duties, after doing my lottery at the Post Office, the lady that served me who is foreign, from the Philippines I think, I asked her “have you been burgled today?” she said “No”, so I asked “Has anybody vandalised the shop?”, she said “No”, I asked “How come the police were here earlier?”, she said “They always come here”, I said thank you and left the shop.

The sergeant who was dealing with this incident had now finished his shift, I left a message with the control room for him to ring me on 07977928434, he came back on duty on 14^th November, time 10 o’clock, Sergeant 1884 John Parry called me, I told him what the lady at the Post Office told me, that the police always call there, John was very helpful and understanding and said I don’t know why she said that; an officer was there on policing duties as a charity box had been stolen from the counter and if I wanted I could check under the Freedom of Information act, if Sergeant Parry is right this was a non-emergency and the police vehicle should have parked lawfully and walked up to the Post Office.

JFT96 – YNWA