Tickety boo hoo under Meanies rule

PARKING in the Capital was decriminalised in 1998, with the city council introducing its own attendants – the notorious Blue Meanies – to replace police parking wardens.

In November 2002, Scotland’s rugby players were left stunned after a parking attendant slapped their bus with a ticket at the MacDonald Holyrood Hotel (1). Driver Dennis Wells complained, but was told: “If they’re the Scotland rugby team then they can afford to pay it.”

Restaurateur Malcolm Duck led a campaign for reduced parking fines for business owners in 2006 after racking up a ticket a month outside his eatery in the New Town (2).

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MS sufferer Frances Hawarden found herself bombarded with parking tickets after leaving her car outside her own home in Merchiston while on holiday and despite having a resident’s permit (3).

And in 2003, a hearse owned by MacKenzie and Millar Funeral Directors was ticketed in Great Junction Street as it waited to go to a funeral (4).

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