Ealing Council parking enforcement officers operating on Southall Broadway are taking bribes.

There is no other explanation for their actions since the summer of last year.

Three to four ice cream vans are permanently trading from Southall Broadway. They are parked on the pavement, loading bays or no stopping lines. This has been going on since last summer. Ealing Council are fully aware of the parking violations but are naive in thinking they are actually enforcing anything

Some (not all) of the history is:

28 Aug 2016 – “Ealing Parking officers can't find an ice cream van? Always parked on no stopping lines, double yellow line or loading area around Southall Broadway”

30 Aug 2016 – “Parking Services and the Licensing Team are aware of the Ice Cream Vans in Southall, these are currently being investigated.”

31 March 2017 – “Are traffic wardens ON HOLIDAY? Or blind? How can ice-cream vans PERMANENTLY operate from loading bays on Southall Broadway?”

31 March 2017 – “Stop (just) collecting the fcuking data - just issue the tickets and get the message across. This is NOT a new issue. So tackle it.”

10 April 2017 - “Can you advise on the registration of these vehicles?” You want registration numbers of vehicles that are PERMANENTLY parked there 7 days a week?

28 May 2017 - “From August 2016 to now - NO ACTION HAS BEEN TAKEN. How can I say that? I always see 3 PERMANENTLY parked vans on the SAME spot.”

10 June 2017 – “Persistent daily illegally parked ice cream vans given 3 MINUTES each time to run away. DIABOLICALLY STUPID thing to do EVERY DAY. “ Can Ealing Parking services advise on that? No. Not necessary as there was no response.

3 August 2017 - “To report illegal parking, please call 020 8825 6677 and select option 1 (Mon-Fri 9am-5pm) or 020 8825 5000”

3 August 2017 – “It is DEFINATELY happening (Mon-Fri 9am-5pm). It happens ALL the time. You CANNOT miss them - They DON'T MOVE. Ealing Parking services come any time.”

16 August 2017 – “Why are Southall Ice creams vans PERMANENTLY trading from loading bays? Because Ealing Parking officers just WALK PAST THEM EVERY DAY.” “Check it out yourself. Prove me wrong.” produces no response from Council officers, as usual.

The voices that whisper in your ear in Southall say “complain as much as you want, it won’t a difference, nothing will change. Southall is neglected poor part of the London Borough of Ealing.”

Ealing Council’s response to the problem to date is sweet FA, as a usual. In through one ear and out the other.

Why is nothing being done about it? Because NOTHING is being done about it. There is simply no enforcement of these ice cream vendors. Ealing Council are fully aware of these parking violations buy naive in thinking they are actually enforcing anything.

Take yesterday as a typical day example. The parking officer spent 20 minutes (timed) chatting (guess to whom) on Southall Broadway and ignoring illegally parked ice cream vans.

Then he proceeds to issue a ticket to a car parked in a loading bay. Yet he refuses to issue any to a permanently parked ice cream van in the same loading bay – half parked in the loading bay and half parked on the pavement. This permanent location is in front of 64 The Broadway.

Few yards away, in clear sight is another ice cream van parked on double yellow and no stopping lines, just at the start of Alexandria Avenue (next to 68 The Broadway). No ticket there either.

The third spot is in front of Jalebi Junction (93 The Broadway). The enforcement officer walked past that before his long chat. No enforcement here either. There are up to 2 vans parked in this loading area.

You can go back an hour or two or three later and the ice cream vans will STILL be there.

Any normal parking officer can issue a dozen tickets to these vendors on Southall Broadway every day. What is the reality? One a month?

Ealing Council is short of money but is not interested in collecting it from these ice cream vendors and improving the situation for everyone else. What is Ealing Councils response? They have been aware of the situation since last summer.

All their efforts to date (if any) have made no difference to daily violations. Go and check it out for yourself. Nobody from Ealing Council has bothered to do so, so far.

Otherwise this would not have been going on since last summer. Just ask the people who work there? Look at the CCTV camera for any day this summer. Prove me wrong or get off your backside and do something, for a change. The reality is that the ice cream venders are in bed with Ealing parking officers.

You can report it, report it, report it.
But if Ealing Council takes no action what is the point of reporting it.
Stop collecting data for whatever purpose and simply issue the parking tickets.
That will solve the problem.
K.I.S.S. - keep it simple stupid.

In the recent news, a mum was given a parking fine by Harrow Council who were NOT interested in ANY reason or excuse for her parking. On Southall Broadway, we have Ealing Council parking officers who WILL NOT issue ticket to ice creams under ANY circumstances.