fines at stanstead airport

[Thunderchild]

some attempted to fine me for picking someone up from the "dropoff zone" at stanstead airport, claiming very vigorously that it was "LAW". he backed down real fast when I pointed out that basically the idea was to make it more exspensive to go to the "drop off zone" than the exspensive car park. what "LAW" is there to stop me from picking someone up from the drop off area ? I'm very suspicious of the lagality of the fining as he backed down so fast when I calmly objected (yes its a good idea to remain calm and especially as calm as possible when confronting a coloured person next I would probably have been accused of racism)

[Buenchico]

The drop-off area is intended only for cars which will be there for no more than one minute. There's insufficient capacity for vehicles waiting for arriving passengers and, more importantly, it breaches the government's airport security regulations for vehicles to park there (rather than to just drop off).

It only costs �1.80 for half an hour's car parking in the short-term car park.

Chris

[Buenchico]

PS: Describing someone as 'coloured' is regarded as offensive (and possibly 'racist'). When I worked in teaching, using that word could have led to the dismissal of any member of staff who used it.

[jkkerr]

Isn't 'coloured person' a bit, well.....racist?

[Thunderchild]

then how do I refer to such a person ? being rascist is to be offensive and whatever I said was NOT offensive so how was I being rascist ?

as it happens i arranged for the person i was picking up to be there waiting for me I was infact there for no more time than it would take to drop someone off and the area was not packed.

[fredpuli47]

According to the official BAA site for Stansted, stopping on the forecourt is not permitted.Drivers are to wait in the designated area (which, from memory, is still free for 15 minutes or so). .

It's quite likely that there are recent regulations, made as by-laws for the good governance and control of London Stansted Airport, just as there are regulations for Heathrow. These are made under act of Parliament ( I had to research the Heathrow ones once) giving the power to make the regulations to the specified government minister, which regulations are, in fact ,drafted by some civil servant and approved by the minister, whereupon they become law.As such they are enforceable through the local magistrates' court, as offences.

That said, if this man had no uniform and did not produce any proof of authority and entitlement, it was almost certainly a scam. If it wasn't a scam and the regulations give a power to demand an instant fine (or any penalty), you'll probably find an official letter is sent to the registered keeper of the vehicle.In any event, you have what seems the perfect answer viz. that their official produced no i.d or proof of authority and behaved in a manner and made demands wholly out of keeping with his office.

Why not ring Stansted secirity and ask? You may ask as a concerned intending traveller who has been told of this practice, and who wishes to know the position and law .If it's a scam Security ought to know about it and take action.

[Thunderchild]

what makes me very suspicious is how fast he backed down when I stated that the idea was to make us pay as much as possible. I think he was wearing a badge with his photo on it he did not ask me for any money and I've received no fine.

frankly parking at any airport should be free as the airport already charge for their services in the plane ticket, if there has to be a charge is should be very reasonable. conp[ared to any town parking stanstead is quite exspensive luton even more

[buildersmate]

The idea is to dissuade drivers from taking cars to airports and encourage travellers to use public transport. That's why it is expensive.

[Thunderchild]

oh not that again so you expect there to realisticly be a bus from stanstead to Irchester (75 miles away) which someone who is not too good in english will be able to catch. obviously there is no direct bus and I know very well that it would cost more than the petrol and parking actually.

I'm all for being green and do much more than many but to the goverment and other money taking bodies being green is just a way of gaining more money. of copurse because we have such an efficient public trnsport system he would have to first catch a but to london and then get one to a local town from where i would probably have to pick him up paying parking again, he could get a local bus but having tallied it all up and considering that he's just flown into the country and is tired thats a bit much to expect.

if the goverment want to make us a greener country they can start by preventing the sale of poor quality product that come all the way from china break down in months and ened up in landfill soon wasting materials and transport fuel and all to be repeated every 3 odd months, guess why i don't posess a CD player ? I can't find one that lasts more than a year and getting an exspensive one is not the solution I've tried that !

PS I'm still waiting for some one to explain how I refer to someone who is not of british origin and does not neccesarily have white/light coloured skin. could i use black ? I can see now why when it was anounced at my photography club that the studio group was going to have black people as subjects in order to learn how to takle the technical differences of darker skin and have a different subject the guy frankly didn't know how to put it !

[jno]

you seem to have an awful lot of issues bubbling to the surface out of one little incident in which (a) you were in the wrong and (b) nothing happened. What's the problem?

[Postdog]

You say black or asian or chinese or whatever.

or use the IC codes.....

[Thunderchild]

you should be a psychiatrist. yes I do have a problem with being overcharged in the name of a higher cause knowing very well that its rubbish and that I'm just being overchrged full stop.

so you evidently see no problem with exspensive parking and goverment tax on flights as an exscuse to make the country green when it is really a dwafed thing if you really THINK about the whole picture. but of course in this country we enjoy being blind it takes away the hassle of demanding justice and fairness.

[Buenchico]

I attended a course, run by Sheffield City Council, where the (Afro-Caribbean) team leaders stated that the only collective term that was appropriate for 'non-white' people was 'black'. I enquired whether this included members of, say, the Chinese community and was told very firmly that this was correct.

The following day I asked one of my pupils (whose parents ran the local Chinese takeaway) what she thought of that. Her answer used words which I would not normally have approved of in the classroom but which I couldn't really criticise because they summed up my own feelings precisely ;-)

Acceptable terms (to most people, at least) include 'Afro-Caribbean', 'Black', 'Asian', etc, as appropriate.

Chris

[Thunderchild]

hm so black is ok even though its generalised and basically creates a Black versus white situation. in the way you were told to use "black" as a generic term with no respect for specific cultural origin it was about the same as using the wored coloured, in fact in english I would think coloured to be a more acurate word as although it makes distinction between "white" and "the others" it allows for the fact that that person simply has a different colour skin to the native population and may be of any of many backgrounds.

[TCL-MUMPING]

Is white not a colour?

[buildersmate]

Yes, but black is a complete absence of colour.

[Postdog]

Spoken like a true redneck......

[Panic Button]

The pick up area at STN is no longer free, it is �1 for 15 minutes.

However Thunderchild should have gone there. The drop off area has double yellow lines and there are plentiful clear signs that dropping off only is permitted.

Thunderchild knew this, as he or she had arranged to pick up in the drop off area.

I don't know why he or she thinks they are above the rest of us, and can ignore rules.

No doubt had they been dropping off, and the passenger had missed their flight due to others doing the same, Thunderchild would be complaining that the BAA should police it better. They do employ traffic wardens to control the area. I just wish this particular warden had had the guts to issue the ticket.

[TCL-MUMPING]

Is the clue not in the name, "Drop-off area"? Thunderchild was in the wrong and he/she STILL mumps about it!

[Thunderchild]

as a photographer i can say that what most people call white is not an absense of colour and is hardly ever true white, black is the sum of all the primary colours and again whats called black is not neccesarily black, the white light from your desklamp is not white but you don't know that because your eyes take the whitest object in view as white (unless its really not like white) and balance out the rest of the colours so that they appear natural. Infact the perception of colour is something so variable depending on conditions that its hardly worth arguing about a colour unless you have a true common reference else you will see the same colour as two different things.

[Thunderchild]

I welcome the day airports are managed not just by BAA what happened to that plan anyway ? another storm in a teacup i guess and of course it cost us for the gov "think tank" to come up with the idea of breaking down BAA's monopoly, airports do not neccesarily have to be run by the same provider, other services that were best kept under one management were shattered: telephone, mail, power and everything else. whats wrong with splitting up BAA ?