The Other Side Of The Coin.

Herzlos

The other difference with the Japanese system is that their public transport provisions are absolutely incredible. Constant trains anywhere, all day, with cheap overnight couriers. There's no real need to have a car unless you're quite remote or have a lot of stuff to carry daily.

Half_way

Herzlos wrote: »

It's easy money. Just the the PPI-reclaiming companies and ambulance chasers that have appeared out of nowhere en masse.

And depending on how things go we could hopefully see a PPC reclaim industry spring up - If youve ever paid a PPC then you could claim compensation from the PPC or land owner.

Umkomaas

Half_way wrote: »

And depending on how things go we could hopefully see a PPC reclaim industry spring up - If youve ever paid a PPC then you could claim compensation from the PPC or land owner.

One already lined up - and ready to go .....

http://www.challengethefine.com

The_Deep

More cold calls!

Umkomaas

The_Deep wrote: »

More cold calls!

Purchase a BT8500 phone system and relegate cold callers to history. From receiving half a dozen most days, since installation some 4 months ago, not one has got through.

You can see they've tried to make the call, but gain great satisfaction that your call guardian has effed them right off!

Costs no more than most half-decent home landline phone systems like Panasonic or Siemens.

Dr._Shoe

Cornucopia wrote: »

If parking restrictions in London or other similar areas are that much of a problem, people should go and live elsewhere.

As someone who used to live in London, my parking was all very civilised. In fact, there was a main road running through the area with no restrictions, and yet no one seemed to need to park on it as a general rule.

I think it's a little harsh to suggest that people should move away if they can't park their car!

Well my daughter lives in zone 2 and, until a few months ago she lived on the boundary between a CPZ and an unregulated zone. It was easy to park near her house at any time, the onstreet parking was nowhere near to being oversubscribed, especially around the nearby park. Now the area is a CPZ and the raods where the council can't sell parking permits, are either marked as PAD bays or now have double yellow lines. It is not a measure to provide parking for residents it is a measure to provide cash for the council.

HO87

Your suggestion that parking provision is rethought is sound insofar as it represents commonsense but then when did government policy ever represent that?

Parking provision is entirely bound up with the unspoken aim of successive governments of varying shades (well, Labour and LibCon at least) to move the bulk of the population from private transport onto public transport and by so doing reduce private car ownership as part of the UK's commitment to Kyoto. Noble aim but complete bolleaux in application but that's what happens when we are obliged to accept the London-centric, yoghurt-knitting policy wonk brigade to dominate the "thinking".

At any event this has seen a comparative reduction in the way parking space - in relation to development - is calculated and a consequent upward pressure on available parking space as a whole. New company offices have seen restrictions on the number of spaces they can have in their car parks and - as we have seen in Nottingham - a project to apply parking space taxes and then there's road charging. Other moves have been obscured under the guise of environmental enhancement projects. How many car parks do you know that have been re-organised, "tarted up" - losing spaces in exchange for brick-paved accesses, landscaping, large planters and new trees?

Couple all of this with the push for stricter enforcement (in line with which the BPA has cynically played to the government's strong suit) this pressure was intended to drive motorists onto trains and buses. The problem was that there was no matching policy of developing public transport from the pi55-poor state government subsidies have driven that into over the last 20 years.

The yoghurt knitters (You know the type, "These caramelised organic testes, are all the way from the Pheqme archipelago, Quentin?" "Thank you Jolyon, don't mind if I do") seemingly failed to understand that public transport beyond Zone 6 rarely provides transport where or when its needed. Catching a bus anywhere beyond the main conurbations much after 8.00pm is a non-starter; and as for night buses what the h3ll are they? Some might suggest that the lack of public transport is actually a ploy to keep Joylon and Quentin out of the countryside by preventing them from getting to a decent delicatessen. I suppose that will just mean we'll have to put up with the insufferable, self-righteous, invertebrate climate bores cluttering our local Tesco Metro car park while they charge up their e-cars in order to get back to their solar-powered, straw-bale rural pied-a-terres with their fresh larks tongues, hand-folded Tuscan lasagne and Spangles.

PPG13 was "parked" some while ago but it is still alive and kicking in the minds of the small-minded, unthinking pointy-head in your local planning department. Whilst they rule the roost - together with their friends in Whitehall - we'll not see any commonsense as far as parking is concerned.[/rant]

The_Deep

Umkomaas wrote: »

Purchase a BT8500 phone system and relegate cold callers to history ....

Thank you, but does it block call from firms with whom one has already had dealings, "Wirus" calls from India and the Phillipines, calls from charities, and people replying to advertisements and items on eBay. Not all the cold calls are unwelcome as I use my ;phone in connection with my rental business.

The_Deep

Lots of posts, but few practical solutions. Most of the supermarkets that I use in Spain validate your ticket at the check out. Apart from that most parking is free, even on private land.

What is needed is an ethical PPC which charges an affordable penalty, say not more that £30, and legislation should be imposed to scrap the ridiculous £70-£100 which most PPCs demand.

Umkomaas

The_Deep wrote: »

Thank you, but does it block call from firms with whom one has already had dealings, "Wirus" calls from India and the Phillipines, calls from charities, and people replying to advertisements and items on eBay. Not all the cold calls are unwelcome as I use my ;phone in connection with my rental business.

Any calls from numbers you have not pre-programmed into your phone book have to press the # key at their end once your phone initially answers them on your behalf (immediately kills off the automated PPI calls and those silent calls where their system waits for you to answer, then puts you through to a battery hen, often resulting in dropped calls).

Having pressed the # key they have to announce their name. It's at that point your phone rings, you pick up and hear who it is before you decide to either take the call without restrictions (the system remembers the number for the future), you take the call on a one-off only basis (if they call subsequently, they have to go through the same process again), you transfer the call to voicemail, or you block the number permanently.

For those where the # key isn't pressed, your phone never rings, but you get a list of all calls made to your number, with an icon against those numbers who didn't press the # key. At this point you can also block any of those numbers on that list which are clearly 'dodgy'.

In some ways I miss the Wirus boys as I used to have a bit of fun, giving them a greed-fuelled run around until I got their corks to pop. Learned quite a bit of colonial vernacular, which you might have come across in your past travels.

HTH