THERE seems to be a lot of bad press these days about the traffic wardens in Bury and from what I witnessed on Friday, July 31, I can fully understand why.

My wife needed to call into Wilkinson’s on The Rock. As I drove past their car park, two parking wardens were hanging around, although there were very few cars on the car park. I thought that they were perhaps waiting around for their shift to finish.

I parked on the street and obtained a free 15-minute ticket. This was at exactly 5.45pm.

After a couple of minutes, one of the wardens left and at 5.50pm, the remaining warden proceeded to issue a parking fine for one of the cars remaining on the car park, taking photographs with a smirk on his face. He then left the car park and within another couple of minutes, at 5.55pm, the middle aged owners of the car returned to find the parking fine.

I don’t know how long the wardens were on the car park before I drove past, but it was very obvious that this particular warden was waiting around in the hope of issuing one last ticket before parking became free at 6pm.

The warden would probably argue that the car’s parking ticket had expired and that he was only doing his job, but with only a few minutes to go before parking became free, it was the obvious delight on his face that particularly incensed me.

I know that if I had received a parking fine in these circumstances that it would put me off shopping in Bury again.

Could anyone tell me who gets the revenue from parking fines — Bury Council or the company in charge of the parking wardens — as this particular incident did not do Bury Council any favours?

Also, does anyone know if the car park wardens are on some sort of an incentive scheme whereby they earn a bonus from the number of tickets issued? Name and address supplied