Angela Powell is a traffic...

Angela Powell is a traffic warden who proudly states that in her first 17 days of work, she handed out a massive 500 parking tickets

Angela Powell describes the relationship between herself and the people she targets on the street corners, quiet side roads and shadowy walkways she prowls as “a bit of a joke”. But nobody’s laughing. True, her bosses who put her out on the sometimes dangerous front line are having a wry smile in view of the amount of money they’re making out of her. And needless to say, they enjoy the lion’s share of the cash, while she earns a pittance.

From the photographic evidence I’ve seen, Angie looks as miserable as sin. Those of us who understand the everyday rules of common sense, fair play and true justice know that what she’s doing won’t win her any friends. If her career path hasn’t made her unhappy thus far, my guess is that it will eventually.

In her own words, she admits it’s a game of “cat and mouse” on the mean streets of Warwickshire. I hope I’m wrong, but I think it’s only a matter of time before some people get angry, aggressive or violent with Angela because she’s largely left to fend for herself as she prowls the roads of Nuneaton and Bedworth.

Ms Powell and the individuals and organisations aiding and abetting her are doing something that might just be acceptable in law. But I doubt the general public will applaud her actions. Her ‘victims’ could be getting a raw deal. But isn’t she something of a victim too, perhaps? Could her employer be accused of exploiting her for huge and unreasonable financial gain? After all, they put her on the street, pay here meagre wages and know she can probably make considerably more money for them in a day than she can earn for herself in a busy month.

Angela Powell is a traffic warden. She appeared in some newspapers recently proudly stating that in her first 17 days of work she had issued a massive 500 tickets. That works out to 29-30 tickets a day on average. Therefore the potential daily reward for her bosses is a minimum of чЈ900 (30 penalty notices at чЈ30 apiece). But as we know, those чЈ30 fines have a habit of escalating to чЈ60 or higher if not paid immediately. So Angie could, on paper, be grossing around чЈ2,000 per day for her masters. As a single parking enforcement officer this can effectively take чЈ5,000-чЈ10,000 a week from the collective pockets of motorists.

On the assumption she typically works an eight-hour shift with 60 minutes

for lunch, she must issue more than four tickets an hour. That gives her less than 15 minutes to locate each offender, consider and inspect the situation, check that an offence really has been committed, do all the paperwork, carefully attach the ticket to the car, take evidential photographs and,

possibly, engage in conversation with the vehicle’s owner.

She even says that she checks cars’ tax discs and has reported several motorists to the DVLA for not keeping theirs up to date. To do this each and every 15 minutes of every hour, seven days a week, is truly an incredible

feat. Especially when wardens have to spend much if not most of their

time walking unproductive miles from one street to another.

What is it about the drivers of Nuneaton and Bedworth that one

‘law-enforcing’ woman nicks them so frequently? Either they are really bad parkers or just refuse to pay and display. Perhaps Angie has beginner’s luck. What would be even more interesting to know, however, is exactly how many of her tickets are successfully appealed.