Fine dodgers: 'Selfish drivers will deserve what they get'

CITY drivers who don't pay their parking tickets are to become the first in Scotland who will face the threat of having their cars clamped.

It seems a pretty drastic response and there will be predictable moans that the council is being heavy-handed, or that it is trying to squeeze yet more cash out of car users.

There were similar grumbles last week when the News revealed that cameras were to be used to catch Capital drivers using bus lanes and hit them with 60 fines.

But those who complain miss the central point that it is only those who repeatedly break the law who have to pay fines and, if they fail to do so, could be clamped.

Sure, the council doesn't always get it right, and it needs taken to task when parking attendants or the rules they apply are over-zealous.

But for the most part the greenways and restrictions across the city are there to keep the traffic moving and allow everyone a chance to park where they need to for a reasonable amount of time.

The majority of drivers understand this and obey the rules – and when they make mistakes they pay their fines and put it down to experience.

It is only a selfish minority which regularly flaunts the rules, and they just make getting around more difficult for the rest of us. They deserve what they get.

ERI car park

THE News is full of admiration for the Cockburn Association and the work it does protecting this beautiful city's heritage.

The architectural watchdog has kept a close eye on all the controversial planning projects of recent years, from Caltongate to the EICC extension, as well as the reprieved Odeon cinema on Clerk Street.

But this newspaper can't agree with the Association's latest objection, to the car park planned for the ERI at Little France.

Director Marion Williams says that the 1,200-space car park will further narrow part of a "green finger", potentially cutting off a vital route used by wildlife.

Anyone can sympathise with this well-meaning approach. But the time to object to such an integral part of a major new hospital which is located on the boundaries of the city was at the start of the whole project.

Now that it has been built – and is soon to be home to the much-needed new Sick Kids – it desperately needs car parking spaces for staff, patients and their visitors.