Short-changed on parking pain

IS local government overly bureaucratic and inflexible? Here’s what happened to me recently. I arrived at Salamanca Place and realised the parking machines were coin operated. This is confusing because in some places you can now pay for parking with a card.

I parked outside Salamanca Fresh and whipped in to buy something to get change for the machine. As I came out, the parking attendant was giving me a ticket. She said the best she could do was to make a note that I had come running to her with change in my hands.

That afternoon I wrote an email asking to be excused from my ticket, explaining the circumstances. I felt I had done nothing to deserve a $40 fine. When I received no response after a couple of weeks, I phoned council and was told it takes 42 days for such an investigation to be completed. I have now received my letter, written in the very best bureauspeak, saying I have to pay up. What the?

Do they have no ability for individual discernment or a sense of fair play? They suggest if I am not happy I can take it to court. What sort of waste of public resources would that be for me to take up court time for such a trivial matter?

I will pay, but I am not happy.

On the ball

THANKS to reader Di Manser for her positive comments about the renewed Hobart Chargers game night experience. She is right when she says it is a great night’s entertainment. She is right that, as a volunteer run body, we have had some teething problems with game times and ticketing. Our volunteers have worked hard with the great staff at the Derwent Entertainment Centre to resolve most of these. We encourage our supporters to raise any improvements they can see with us. All double-header game nights for the rest of the year will be 6pm for the women and 8pm for the men. Thanks Di for the feedback. See you at the basketball. support his claim that there are no effective legal safeguards to safely regulate euthanasia and assisted suicide. ing for biosecurity. It has never been off anyone’s agenda or radar. If not for the people power that worked to have the clean and green badge, it would not have happened. It was not because of the pollies and lobbyists. There had to be an engine room to drive it.