Local News 
War on Cars: Fines on the up
At the end of April next year, the police will be withdrawing resources from traffic enforcement, handing it over to DCC, in partnership with Exeter City Council, enabling them to start raking in cash hand over fist.
With the current situation, trained police officers are running the show, making sure traffic flows smoothly and that fines are only handed out where they're really needed, however this is at odds with the councils' current plans to cripple car usage in the city.
In Torbay a similar scheme was introduced in 2005, which showed a 6-fold increase of parking fines handed out to the tax-paying public. In 2004 around 4,500 fines were given out, compared to the staggering 28,500 in 2005.
"NCP parking officials have been accused in the Torbay area of incorrectly placing tickets on a blood transfusion van, a disabled woman's car in a disabled bay, a hospice delivery driver raising money for the terminally ill, and a stalled car plus the arriving AA breakdown van."
Despite these warning signs, the plan is being pushed through so that councillors can raise enough money to have an extra KitKat with their coffee every morning, whist simultaneously putting people off visiting the lovely new shopping centre which has been built, although with the prices they charge no-one who lives and works locally can afford anything anyway.
Maybe that's it then. If parking fines go up, so does the council kitty. Councillors can claim a victory against parking, grant themselves a raise in pay and go out on a shopping spree. Those cunning bastards.
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