Anger at £4,000 paid to wardens
Aberdeen council hire private traffic wardens
Published:
FOUR private traffic wardens from Manchester have been brought in to Aberdeen at a cost of £4,000-a-week, it was revealed today.
The move sparked outrage – only a day after the cash-strapped Aberdeen City Council extended warden hours to catch rogue parkers at night.
The local authority has hired the temporary parking patrollers from NCP to fill vacancies in its own ranks.
Unions said the four new workers from England should be found from the Aberdeen area.
As reported in later editions of yesterday’s Evening Express, parking wardens will now patrol late at night every day of the week – previously the hours had been 7am to 7pm.
It aims to catch people who park dangerously on double yellow lines late at night.
The new staff from Manchester, three men and a woman, have been put up in a flat in the Fountainhall area and are expected to stay for three months.
Labour councillor Jim Hunter said: “The council has brought itself into disrepute by hiring wardens from Manchester. The big problem I have is their costs, which we understand will be in excess of £1,000 a week each.”
Parking patrollers are due to merge with environmental and community wardens to form the City Warden team.
But council officials say it has put more pressure on staffing, and it has hired the new agency staff as a stop-gap measure.
There are currently 12 vacancies for parking patrollers with the council. The wardens cost the council about £25,000 per year.
The council has said the move was a not a permanent measure. But unions – who have already launched a formal dispute over the plans to switch to city wardens – have hit out at the move.
Regional organiser for the Unite T&G union Tommy Campbell said: “This is an outrage. It is a completely scandalous misuse of council taxpayers money.”
Should Aberdeen council use private patrollers? Have your say below
Readers' Comments
I am glad I moved our of Aberdeen 10 years ago. I would suspect that Aberdeen City Council is now an even Bigger Joke through out the country and probably beyond.
Keith Stirton
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They could save money by sharing Coombers hotel room. The good news is Councils money problems must now be over if they can pay parking attendants £1000/week + expenses.
Alan Craigie
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Oh and Tommy: The outrage is your lot averaging 19 sick days/year. Tommy Campbell said: “This is an outrage. It is a completely scandalous misuse of council taxpayers money.” Indeed!
Alan Craigie
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Och well Alan, it could be worse. In Australia they get 12 sickie a year as a legal minimum on top of their leave!!!!
Frank Arthur
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Well its just crazy,traffic wardens out until 3 am and from another city, the council gone mad,stop voting its the only answer, they just do what they want anyway!
bob seivwright
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How typical of the Aberdeen council to scheme up even more bizarre ways of spending our money! What about a reminder from the P&J last April 08! "A LOCAL authority that is making £27 million cuts to services has had to write off more than £2.5 million in unpaid parking fines, it was revealed yesterday. A confidential report said some 34,260 tickets issued in Aberdeen over four years had had to be scrapped because of a legal mistake....." Need I say more.........
Alan Berry
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How typical of the Aberdeen council to scheme up even more bizarre ways of spending our money! What about a reminder from the P&J last April 08! "A LOCAL authority that is making £27 million cuts to services has had to write off more than £2.5 million in unpaid parking fines, it was revealed yesterday. A confidential report said some 34,260 tickets issued in Aberdeen over four years had had to be scrapped because of a legal mistake....." Need I say more.........
Alan Berry
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Well what more can we expect from Aberdeen council, they just have got no sense that money is required to be spent elsewhere. Just take a look in the city centre now and see how far out the parking meters go. There is also a lot of streets in Aberdeen that have double yellow lines of which at least half have no need for, just the other day i tried to park in canal street there is a few pay and display spaces but rest of road has double yellow lines which there is just no need for. I can see the town becoming dead soon due to lack of parking/cost of parking and even the prices of public transport to get there. WISE UP ABERDEEN COUNCIL AND START THINKING SOON
Dennis Morrison
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Well it's no surprise that Mr Craigie is on whinging about council workers, it's just more of the same. As for ACC's latest blunder, is anyone really surprised? This lot could not arrange a very simple thing in an even more simple place. What exactly are we paying Coomber for?
Billy Buchan
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Anyone wishing to contact the organ grinder at ACC may do so here..... RCoomber@aberdeencity.gov.uk, he may just be able to explain the latest in a long sequence of blunders by the clowns on Broad St.
Billy Buchan
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I really don't get what the complaints are about. Why is this a joke? The council have been trying to get current wardens to change their working practices for a long time and have been frustrated at every turn. As they cannot get local people to do it they have brought in a contractor. Why does it matter where the contractor gets their staff? Many oil companies have people who fly to Aberdeen for a weeks work then fly home again. What's the difference? Don't say money because this will be self-funding so it isn't costing the council anything or the council tax payers anything. I'm glad the council are now drawing a line in the sand with the Unions. They should be working together, but if the Unions always refuse any change that is put to them then the Council has to show it will do it without them.
John Duncan
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Self-funding eh John? Certainly hasn't been in the past. You'd think it cost quite a bit to write the 2.5 million in tickets they forgave. The problem is it's not competently done. Flying people in and putting them up to perform unskilled work is wasteful. I've got no problem with non-union contractors. In fact it may be the only way to run the city given the union performance, but advertise and hire locally.
Alan Craigie
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I think "forgiving" £2.5 million is a strange way to word it. If I recall correctly- someone sued an English Council and the judgement was that parking tickets needed to have two dates on them. The date issued and the date of the offence. Aberdeen in common with many other local authorities only had one. (how often do the two dates vary??!!) They then received legal advice that all these outstanding tickets were unenforceable because of the precedent set by the court case. Throwing any more money after it to have hundreds of the penalties laughed out of court was not viable so they had to write them off. So what would you have done at that point? They have made it clear this is a short-term measure while they recruit, but the ongoing dispute with the Union has delayed the transfer to the point that I am glad to see them do something to get it going.
John Duncan
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There is no sign of the 12 wardens positions available on the city council web site jobs section? If they want locals to apply they may need to advertise the positions better.
Keith Stirton
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define double yellow lines.at night you should be able to park on these lines,PROVIDING,they are not obstructing.but,the council are so greedy for money,they fine you for the least little thing.theyre are more need to clamp down on them who park on disabled bays,never once have i seen a ticket on one yet.they should let people park on double yellows after say 8 at night,providing there is not obstruction.
heather beattie
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