Following on from our 'Litterbugs' item ...

A Mr. Ryan of Dovercourt, Essex, was issued with a £30 fixed penalty fine at an NCP car park in Ipswich EVEN THOUGH HE HAD BOUGHT A TICKET!!!
   Mr. Ryan left his ticket upside down on his vehicle's dashboard and the jobsworth of a car park attendant concerned issued the fine for "not displaying a valid parking ticket". Ticket upside down was added to the charge sheet by way of explanation.
   Quite rightly, Mr Ryan has challenged the fine. A spokesman for NCP said that his complaint would be examined and the fine would be cancelled if the penalty notice had been issued in error. Perhaps NCP should also examine the heads of their car park attendants to make sure that they are screwed on the right way.
   After he receives an apology for NCP's crude attempt to extort money from him, perhaps Mr. Ryan should consider sueing them for stress and trauma caused by their negligence in employing a wilfully bolshy car park attendant.

Talking abouts jobsworths ...

The water companies are looking for over 30% more cash from their customers between 2005 and 2010 – or over 70% in the case of United Utilities in the North West. They have also been telling customers that if they have a water meter fitted, they could see their bill reduced. Wrong!
   If the water companies' sales go down, they are allowed to bump up their prices to keep their profits healthy. So anyone using less water will pay the same amount of money – or, more likely, more money – for being economical with a scarce resource.
   How can the water companies get away with this? Because Ofwat, the alleged industry regulator, is letting them. Chief Ofwat jobsworth Philip Fletcher sees allowing water companies to ignore government imposed price caps as part of his job. And if the customers get screwed in the process, hard bloody luck.