www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-sussex-15867823
Obviously someone does not like paying for parking and instead of parking elsewhere they are blowing the meters up. A bit dangerous!
What do you do to avoid paying for parking?
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>> What do you do to avoid paying for parking?
Walk/run/cycle/take the train :)
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>>What do you do to avoid paying for parking?<<
Carry an angle grinder in me boot.
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"What do you do to avoid paying for parking?"
Isn't that a bit like saying how do you avoid paying for your groceries? If there's a charge you should pay it. Otherwise go somewhere else of don't use the car.
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Nice cup of tea, plant back side in front of PC, internet shop.
I know councils and urban planners live in other dimensions to the rest of us, but you'd think they would realise the car owner might the last sector to have a couple of quid left to spend, so why not make it easier and more attractive for them to visit.
As it is, rip me off and or make me drive half way round the world to park and you'll not see a penny of my money.
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I was in my local LIDL, the guy in front was buying a 25p chocolate bar and insisting on a receipt.
LIDL allow 90 minutes free parking for customers. There's a council run, multi-storey opposite that's nowhere near as cheap!
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>> I know councils ... live in other dimensions to the rest of us
My local council has made parking in town free for up to 2 hours on Saturdays in December - a great idea IMO. I live close enough to walk to town, but many don't and would otherwise go to the out-of-town superstores that offer free parking.
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>> My local council has made parking in town free for up to 2 hours on
>> Saturdays in December - a great idea IMO.
Hopefully a small acorn that will grow, unless towns provide this sort of thing or good cheap park and ride they will die.
Hopefully they will extend to other times too.
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>> I know councils and urban planners live in other dimensions to the rest of us,
>> but you'd think they would realise the car owner might the last sector to have
>> a couple of quid left to spend, so why not make it easier and more
>> attractive for them to visit.
They're doing that now in Northampton with the Grosvenor Centre being free/cheap on Sundays. But it's not long ago you could be queuing for ages to park on any surface car park round the town centre on a Saturday. Provision of more space costs money and it's difficult to see why reasonable charges should not be made for use.
Me? I park at the railway station and walk.
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>>But it's not long ago you could be queuing for ages to park on any surface car park round the >>town centre on a Saturday.
Retired - we do not do Sat/Sun shopping - there are 5 other days in the week when the shops are less busy - especially in December
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Goodness me, do none of you have a 200 million pound guided bus to take you into the centre of town like what we do, now open in all its rampant glory?
Of course, it actually costs more than driving in and there are no bus lanes in town so it's no quicker, but it's money well spent. Apparently.
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>> Goodness me, do none of you have a 200 million pound guided bus to take
>> you into the centre of town like what we do, now open in all its
>> rampant glory?
Ha, cheapskates !
We can walk a hundred yards or so and use our £600 million state of the art trams...15 mins, straight into the main shopping street and it's all free after 0930 for us crumblies !
Busway ?......Shmusway !
Otherwise, I just drive in, find a disabled bay and, bingo...all day free parking !
Lot of angst here at the moment, council just introduced charges for on-street parking on Sundays.......that's not gone down well.
Ted
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>> Lot of angst here at the moment, council just introduced charges for on-street parking on
>> Sundays.......that's not gone down well.
>>
Madness.... free parking = more people going into town = shops sell stuff = shops make profit = shops stay in business = council get rates, so more money in coffers..
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I drove to Maidstone last Saturday morning and parked in one of the open car parks which is less than 5 minutes walk from the town centre.There was my car and one other in it. Walking into town i passed another even closer car park, probably 3 minutes walk from the town, again 2 cars parked in it, however the multistorey car park above the shopping centre had a queue of about 20 cars waiting in the road for a space to become available ! Has everyone really become that lazy that they would rather sit there for half an hour or more rather than just take a short walk ?
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Another good reason for not selling fireworks to the general public IMO.
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Shop on the internet. Don't go to places where the parking is expensive. I used to go to a nearby town with free parking. They stopped it so I don't shop there any more. I did go once and the car park was mostly empty so either no one shops there any more either or they're all parking outside people's houses or retail parks. Same car park was normally full.
Instead of getting rid of town centre car parking charges most of the muppet councils are on about trying to charge for parking on free out of town car parks by imposing charges on the retailer! How DUMB can you get.
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I always thought the Paul Newman character in Cool Hand Luke was a people's martyr, heart in the right place, doing what any red-blooded person would do if drunk (felling parking meters with a pipe cutter). The greed, effrontery and petty faffing arrogance of councils and their smelly dripping-nosed bureaucrats just beg for constant robust opposition.
I notice the council that owns the machines in question and the local Old Bill are tutting and shaking their heads over the risk posed to passers-by, apparently by small fireworks. Prats.
Whoever did this ought to have used gelignite. At least then the damn machines wouldn't have been repairable. Apparently they cost as much as cars. Hit these carphounds where it hurts!
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I wonder what would happen if you poured in that stuff that melts through anything into the coin slot. Can't think what it is called but it is always on tv when they need to twonk about.
I'd just go about putting highwayman outfits on them. Makes a similar point and not the unnecessary H & S risks :-)
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>> I wonder what would happen if you poured in that stuff that melts through anything
>> into the coin slot. Can't think what it is called but it is always on
>> tv when they need to twonk about.
>
I bought some of that once, but when i got home all I had was a hole in my shopping bag.
Money down the drain you may say, but the drain had gone as well.
Last edited by: Zero on Thu 24 Nov 11 at 17:33
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>> I wonder what would happen if you poured in that stuff that melts through anything into the coin slot.
Wouldn't that expanding foam in a can be better?
Is the stuff you're thinking about always being shown on Brainiac?
Last edited by: VxFan on Thu 24 Nov 11 at 21:34
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>> >> I wonder what would happen if you poured in that stuff that melts through
>> anything into the coin slot.
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>> Wouldn't that expanding foam in a can be better?
>>
>> Is the stuff you're thinking about always being shown on Brainiac?
>>
Ooh expanding foam might be good :)
Yes, it's that stuff on brainiac.
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If you chaps are thinking of gumming up parking machines with suitable expanding foam, perhaps fed into the slot through a suitable tube attachment, do make sure the machine won't accept coins by filling the slot to the brim, won't you?
Nothing more annoying than feeding coins into a machine and losing them completely. The meter folk in London just shrug when you say you've put all your money in. The most sympathy you are likely to get is time to sprint to a nearby shop or pub to get some more shrapnel.
Gelignite is a much better idea. No messing, sort of.
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I was infuriated by a pay-phone that swallowed my money, so I gave it a hefty thump and hit the jackpot.
It could've been embarrassing, as I worked for BT at the time and knew they were fitted with sensors to detect attacks.
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"that stuff that melts through anything"
Thermite?
;-)
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The hypocrisy of some councils staggers me when it comes to their parking greed!
I used to live in the centre of Durham city - where you needed planning permission to put a TV aerial on your roof as it might detract from the beautiful historic nature of the streets.
Wind forward a few years and the streets of Durham are littered with great ugly parking meters, a 'congestion' scheme that looks like a load of road signs fell out of the back of a lorry and only 1 car park when there used to be 5.
And the worst part? Durham Council in league with NCP. Thats like Satan and Bin Laden joining forces ;-)
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A helpful article in today's Telegraph explains that you need to pack in as many small fireworks as possible.
It's amazing what a small explosion can do in a confined space. My father used to distain rawlplugs and maintained that old matchsticks worked just as well for plugging holes. When I copied him once I omitted to chop the live heads off. The bang from 6 matches being hammered into the wall blasted a hole 6" across.
My action was indeed "mindless". But that is hardly the right word for the action of the Lewes heroes. They appear to have devoted a lot of brainpower to their highly-targetted action.
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Explosion in car parks - Lewes - Focusless
