WTF Reading Borough Council?
 

Dear Reading Borough Council,

I have only been to Reading once to drop a mate off at the train station. I was following my GPS back to the M4 when I suddenly found myself in a bus lane at the end of what looked like a residential street.

True story.

But it was Sunday afternoon and there were no other cars or buses around. I would have had to do a three point turn to get out of it.

There were no warning signs before Stanshawe Road. You actually made me look it up on Google street view.

No, wait. There was one sign that took me a while to spot even in the cold light of day. Cunningly pointing in the same direction that I was travelling and it was only a dead end sign. Nothing to do with bus lanes.

On this particular Sunday afternoon there was a group of people stood outside the pub so even if I had have spotted it I wouldn’t have seen that I was heading into a dead end.

You (whoever you are) probably spend a good portion of your working day reading sob stories. This isn’t one of those…. And I have nothing against you personally.

Yeah that was my car. Yeah I suppose it was technically a bus lane but come the 7uck on Reading Borough Council... this is a low down dirty stinking festering way of collecting money and you 7ucking know it.

I paid like the good citizen that I am only because I know it is pointless trying to argue otherwise.

So 7uck you Reading Borough Council. I love your work. Oh, and just in case I’m not being subtle enough for you that last sentence was sarcasm.

Sincerely,

Westwood2006.

Payment Number xxxx
Penalty Charge Notice xxxx
Amount Paid £30.00
Date Paid 03 Mar 2011
Our Reference xxxx
Bank Reference xxxx
User Tx Reference xxxx
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Can I suggest that you visit Oxford the next time you are out in your car.
They love motorists there;)

Can I suggest next time you do a U turn in the area before the bus lane that specifcally looks to have been widened to do U turns :D

I'd further recommend stopping just before the BIG FAT MASSIVE words on the road that say BUS LANE :D

What bothers me here is how the OP got pinched in the first place. The fact that anyone at RBC even knew an 'offence' had been committed can only mean some jobsworth nazi was staring so hard into his camera display he actually noticed a car pulling out there, as I don't see how an automatic camera could be setup to trigger for it. Also, any cameras that are there were probably only agreed to on the basis they'd be used to monitor stopped traffic on the box junction, so yet more evidence of power-gone-to-their-heads council naziness.

Send them all to Beirut for a few months, see if they can install some order there if they're so clever at it :o

Once again people putting too much faith in GPS

:lol1::lol1::lol1::lol1:

I'd edit the bottom line of that letter and put:

"If you would like my view on Reading Borough Council's poor road signage and resource wasting driver prosectution tactics, please see the enclosed"

Now, dig up a cat turd and put it in the same envelope. :smug:

(cat turds smell worse that dog turds ;) )

Yeah ! remember Harold Shipman !!!!

Dear Mr Westwood,

I have passed your e-mail on to the Bus Lane Enforcement Team.

Your original correspondence is quoted below. Please note that to protect your personal details they have been removed from the quoted text.

Regards
Customer Service Advisor (11118)
Call Centre
Reading Borough Council

Lesson learnt - use Google street view to navigate instead of your windscreen.

D

Should have kept it old school - eyes on the road rather than the satnav ;)

TX.

PS

They use CCTV to "catch" people these days, after it's been used to keep us safe of course :thumb:

They are there to take your money of course. Got to kept their salaries and pensions financed.

Les

almost definitely a private company running the contract for the council with targets to meet. the road isnt widened to do turn but in fact narrowed to 1 lane.

the purpose is to make people leave car at home and take the bus whilst making money out of fines, they know which camera's to watch as they know which bus lanes are badly signed posted or have no logical reason so people will take a chance get caught

I too was caught by Reading Borough Council in the bus lane of this very same road. I had delight in posting this letter to them today.

Dearest Reading Borough Council,

I realise Harry Potter is coming to the end of his time at Hogwarts but I did not realise he is already working for you!

Pure magic must have made that ‘Bus Lane’ sign invisible to the naked eye! Maybe he just shrank it to a size so small that no sensible, careful driver could possibly see it.

Once trapped in the said ‘Bus Lane’ it is then impossible to turn around and get out without a broomstick so a good driver can only go forward and drive right over the ridiculously late ‘Bus Lane’ notice painted on the road!

So, please advise Harry that he must ensure his signage be enlarged. I wonder what spell he’ll use for that. Maybe the same one he uses for enlarging the council’s income through ‘Honey Trap’ traffic charges.

I will very begrudgingly pay this fine as I know Harry will just render invisible any representation I spend my precious time and energy on, so what’s the point in bothering?

Reading doesn’t have a lot going for it anyway so thieving from one day visitors is not encouraging return visits, so STOP IT HARRY!

Yours very angrily,

Very restrained. When I find my wand I'm going to fill their offices with chicken **** and turn the heating to full.

Welcome to SN Btw!

Also, that's not a Bus lane.... that is a Bus Spot!!!

Sorry but you should have turned round it is clearly marked and clearly a 2 way road up to the bus only bit. The road is wide enough to doso and you would not need to fear oncomming traffic.

You chose to drive through a restricted area and got caught, unlucky, i cannot see a problem with the layout of the road.

What ever you say they are still fu ckers.

You also failed to see the dead end sign at the start of the road. Re-test ? eye-test ? ;)

Well at least it is not just me!

How do you do these? Software online?
I Neeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeed it :)

Found it :)

Don't worry Westwood 2006, it's not just the two of us either. I rang Reading Borough Thieving Council this afternoon (before posting the letter) and they argued for half an hour that the 'Bus Lane' sign is clear (which it isn't) and that it's 24/7 (after he went off to check with a supervisor) and that numerous others have been 'caught' in our situation.
Easy money for them!!
I demanded they go and check their road signs properly (doubt they'll bother) but at least I won't waste my time ever going to Reading again :p!

As a resident of Reading this just does not unduly concern me as given your level of observation I'm more worried about you driving in to me if you were ever to visit us again. :)

My sympathies...oh no, I mean, apologies.

to be fair to you, RBC are renowned for being car haters, and that is certainly reflected in their "traffic management".

Thanks for your understanding scarey (if only RBC were so)...good luck ;)