TOP TEN PARKING TICKETS ISSUED 2009/10:
*Friars Road - 1,261
*Lower Holyhead Road - 1,055
*Daventry Road - 944
*Greyfriars Lane - 910
*Foleshill Road - 725
*Whitefriars Street - 674
*Queen Victoria Road - 577
*Cuckoo Lane - 456
*Warwick Lane - 421
*Much Park Street - 401
MOTORISTS parking in a city centre street beware – it’s the number one hotspot for parking tickets!
Traffic wardens issued a whopping 1,261 tickets to drivers flouting the law in Friars Road in one year, the Times can reveal.
The number of tickets handed out, which equates to nearly 25 tickets each week from April 2009 to March 2010, were for parking on double or single yellow lines or for parking longer than permitted.
Other reasons why drivers were slapped with an instant fine of £70 – reduced by half if paid within 14 days – was because they had parked in a taxi rank, parked incorrectly or parked in a clearway.
A number of motorists have also been fined for parking in a disabled spot with no badge and parking in a bus stop.
Foleshill Road, in Foleshill, which is the fifth highest in the table, saw 10 people penalised for parking in a bus stop. A total of 7,424 tickets were issued in the top 10 Coventry streets favourite with parking wardens.
Martin Yardley, director of city services and development, said: “We make no apologies for issuing penalty notices. We do it to keep traffic moving smoothly and to keep pedestrians and other motorists safe.
“We all know how frustrating it is to be stuck in traffic because you’re having to wait to edge round someone who has parked where they shouldn’t.
“It also beggars belief when people think they can get away with parking in spots that are specifically designed and located for blue badge holders.
“Any revenue made from the collection of parking fines in Coventry is reinvested in improving traffic management and keeping the roads flowing.”
Coventry City Council took over as parking enforcers from West Midlands Police in 2005. But so far any money made from parking fines is being used to clear hundreds of thousands of pounds of debt which has mounted up setting the operation up.
In the last financial year (April 2008 to March 2009) the council raked in more than £1million, but only pocketed £27,000. It was the first year the scheme had made a surplus.
What do you think? Write to us or email timesletters@mrn.co.uk.
CITY centre nightlife has taken a hit as the biggest Coventry nightclub has shut with the loss of
nearly 30 jobs.
The 2,735-capacity Lava and Ignite venue, at the Skydome complex, closed suddenly with no warning after 10 years.
The final day of trading was Easter Sunday but employees were not told until an emer-gency staff meeting the following week.
Thirteen people have been relocated to other Luminar venues but 27 people have been made redundant.
The nightclub was owned by Luminar Leisure, which also runs Skydome-based JJs and the former Chicago Rock Cafe which closed a few weeks ago.
In February the group announced a rigorous cost-cutting exercise after reporting like-for-like sales for 2009 were down by nearly 10 per cent and that trade had been affected by the bad weather, although JJs is safe after Luminar said they were “very pleased with its performance.”
Peter Turpin, operations director at Luminar Leisure, said: “The decision was taken following consultation with the club’s management and staff.
“We have chosen to focus our attention on JJs, our other neighbouring club in Coventry.
“JJs is the busiest late night entertainment venue in the city and we are very pleased with JJ’s ongoing performance.”
JD Wetherspoon is understood to be interested in the vacant Chicago Rock Cafe, and another nightclub operator is interested in taking over the Lava and Ignite site.
Ian Fox, managing director of Targetfollow, which owns the Skydome, said: “As a landlord we have been marketing this space and got some good initial interest from another nightclub operator.”
The nightclub opened as Ikon and Diva in 1999 and changed to Lava and Ignite following a £2million revamp in 2005.
It won the Best Bar None Godiva Award the following year for customer safety.
Mick McLaughlin, of city centre promotions firm CV One, said the closure was a “real shame”.
He added: “We are hoping that whatever moves into the units will be able to add a new dimension to the locale.”
What do you think? Write to us or email timesletters@mrn.co.uk.
MORE than 2,000 people have joined a group attacking organisers of the Godiva Festival.
Creators of Facebook group CV One Stole our Festival have accused the company which manages the city centre, of killing the local element of the popular city festival.
They are angry because acts from outside Coventry and Warwickshire will be competing for this year’s Godiva Unsigned title.
The group has excelled in attracting more members than a general fan group of the Coventry festival.
Group organiser Martin Eaton wrote: “Our main aim is to get the Godiva Festival back to how it was when everyone loved it and to recognise and respect local talent.”
Thousands of posts have been left on the social networking site.
One reads: “The really annoying thing is Martin Reeves, chief executive of Coventry City Council, was in the paper a few weeks ago calling the people of Coventry unambitious.
“But, excuse me, Godiva started as a local community festival if I am not mistaken? It is now supporting the arts of another city which he wants us to get out from under the shadow of.
“CV One is partially funded by the city council. Anyone see the hilarity and yet total annoyance of this fact?”
Another said: “There are loads of bands in Coventry which would benefit from going on a stage and this chance is being taken away by random bands from Birmingham who no one knows. I’m very outraged.”
But CV One has said they were only reacting to suggestions the competition should encompass the rest of the region.
Mick McLaughlin, marketing and communications manager, said: “We are very disappointed by the Facebook campaign, as we responded to the public’s request to encourage a wider range of live acts to apply to the Godiva Unsigned competition.
“We are also saddened that a proportion of these Facebook entries have resorted to personal criticism of CV One’s services, products and individual staff members.
“We appreciate that people can and should have the opportunity to voice their opinions but to single out individual staff members is, we believe, completely unnecessary and potentially libellous.
“This year, of the bands that entered the competition, only 19 per cent of the original entrants lived in Coventry.
“The remaining 81 per cent came from across the West Midlands region.
“It is wholly erroneous therefore to suggest that there is no Coventry representation in this year’s competition as some of the Facebook contributors seem to believe.”
What do you think? Write to us or email timesletters@mrn.co.uk.
A MUM given a lifetime ban on owning animals after letting her dog starve to death was previously given a 10-year ban for a similar offence, the Times can reveal.
Wendy Shaylor, aged 41, of Coventry, appeared before city magistrates last Thursday because she abandoned her spaniel at her previous home in Achal Close, Foleshill.
The court heard she had left it there with hardly anything to eat or drink for two months, along with two cats, when she moved to Coundon with her children last year.
Shaylor, who now lives in Three Spires Avenue, Coundon, admitted two counts of causing unnecessary suffering to a dog from July 1 to September 19 last year and six counts of failing to meet the needs of two cats and a dog between August 23 and September 19.
She received an 18-week prison sentence suspended for 12 months and was ordered to carry out 200 hours of unpaid work.
She was also disqualified for life from owning, keeping, or being in contact with any animal.
The body of the spaniel was discovered by RSPCA officers on September 18 last year after a neighbour alerted them to two cats scratching on the front windows of the home.
Gaynor Sutton, prosecuting, said both cats survived the ordeal, but officers later discovered the dog wrapped in a blue and white jacket and dumped in a black bag in the upstairs bedroom.
The decomposed body had been left to rot for at least a month.
The court heard that hunger pangs had hit her so hard she ended up eating bits of rubber and tried to munch on empty tin cans of food. She also made scratch marks on doors of the house.
Andrew Sharp, defending, said: “She admitted she had responsibility of the dog and cats at that address. She is very much to blame in this matter. She made attempts to feed them but it was woefully inadequate.”
He said Shaylor had been seen visiting the premises but “didn’t visit often enough”.
Herchran Boal, RSPCA officer for the Midlands, said in 1991 Shaylor was given a 10-year ban on owning animals.
She said: “I’m extremely pleased with the result, especially because she had got a lifetime ban.
“I know she got a suspended sentence, maybe because she has kids to look after, but I think she more than deserved being in custody for what she did.
“It was so horrific and callous to leave the animals in that condition.
“Going outside is what saved the cats, they probably caught a pigeon or two to survive.
“The whole thing was so inhumane.
“In 1991 Shaylor was actually given a 10-year ban from owning, keeping or being in contact with any animal.
“But yet she has done the same thing again, so that is why this is a pleasing result for the RSPCA.”.
A DRUG addict who burgled a house to feed his habit, even though his sister died from an over-dose, has been sent to jail for two years.
Scott Bates, 26, appeared before Coventry Crown Court last Thursday charged with burglary.
The court heard how Bates, who lived in Clennon Rise, Henley Green, smashed the windows of a property he burgled last October and made off with about £600 worth of items which included a Playstation and jewellery.
Police investigating the incident found the offender’s fingerprints on a bag that was at the address.
When they interviewed Bates he claimed to have no recollection of the evening’s events because he had taken drugs.
He couldn’t explain how his fingerprints got on the bag.
Prosecutor Blondol Thompson told the court Bates had committed his first burglary when he was just 13.
Richard Murray, defending, told of Bates’ troubled upbringing, which involved his parents separating at an early age.
He said: “There is no secret as to what drives him to come before the criminal courts.
“His parents separated at an early age and since then he has lived a transient lifestyle.
“In short it’s a long road that Mr Bates has to travel to get himself law abiding and drug free. And he is starting to show the first shoots of doing just that.
“For the first time really he is looking at his life and wanting to change it.
“The last thing he wants is to be like his brother who has an entrenched drug addiction, or be like his sister, who died from an overdose – he nearly died himself.”
Bates, who had just finished a 36-week sentence for a different offence two weeks ago, had pleaded guilty to his charge of burglary six weeks into that sentence.
Judge Philip Gregory sentenced Bates to two years in jail.
He said: “You have been committing criminal offences since you were 13.
“You’ve proved yourself to be a determined thief.
“If you commit an offence of this nature again sentencing will start at three years and will
probably be a lot longer.
“I’m satisfied that nothing other than a custodial sentence can, in this case, be justified.”
SPEEDING drivers in Westwood Heath are being targeted by residents using speed guns.
A section of Westwood Heath Road, between Cromwell Lane and Bockendon Road, is a 30mph zone, but motorists are regularly thundering past at speeds nearly double the limit.
To tackle the problem, residents have teamed up with West Midlands Police and have been using speed guns to clock fast cars all this week.
Residents and police community support officers have been monitoring traffic between 8am and 10am and then again at 3.30pm to 6pm since Monday.
In the first two sessions – held at peak times on Monday afternoon and Tuesday morning – 122 drivers were clocked travelling at 35mph or above, with the fastest clocked at 57mph.
The community speed watch week, which finishes on Saturday, is spearheaded by PC Tony Ashton, of the Westwood neighbourhood policing team, who has welcomed residents’ interests.
“I have been made aware by residents that some vehicles are travelling in excess of the 30mph speed limit,” he said.
“It can be quite appealing for motorists to speed – it’s a long, straight road that only has houses on one side. But that’s not an excuse to break the limit.”
In the past three years there have been four accidents near Cromwell Lane.
The Times joined the team on Monday where about 70 vehicles were recorded travelling at 35mph or above.
Diane Holden, 52, a driver and Mike Holden, 54, a director, moved into the street almost three years ago.
They said: “As soon as we moved here we realised it was a fast road. We are on it every day and people are always speeding down it.
“It’s dangerous because there are children, people walking pets and other motorists that are at risk from speeding drivers.
“Hopefully our clear presence will send out a message to those drivers to be aware of their speed to stop future accidents.”
A ‘football’ system of notices has been created to warn drivers caught breaking the limit – speeding drivers will first receive a ‘yellow’ letter, then if they are caught again they get a ‘red’ letter warning them.
A third time means action will be taken.
Councillor David Skinner, (Con, Westwood), said: “For as long as I can remember this road has always caused problems.
“On one occasion two drivers were racing down Westwood Heath Road, one on either side of the road. If anyone was attempting to cross the road they would’ve been killed.
“Something needs to be done, I know the junction cannot be re-built because the costs would be absolutely astronomical, it would run into hundreds of thousands of pounds.
“But surely there must be a cheaper option.”
Coventry City Council, which maintains the city’s roads, said the accident rate is not high enough for any intervention.
Paul Boulton, highways network manager, said: “Our intervention level is six accidents in three years, but four accidents is not something to be ignored.
“The junction near Cromwell Lane is in a Y shape, which is not one we use anymore.
“If that road was to be built now it would be in the T shape.
“Any work like that will require a minimum of £20,000 and depending on how much work under the road would need to be done, for example, if we disturb drains or power lines, could mean the figure goes up to what Cllr Skinner quoted.
“There are hundreds of other roads in Coventry that need work on first, but if we had extra money then it’s certainly something we can look at.
“In the meantime a short term solution could be to improve line markings and have warning signs.”
This year the city council has £350,000 to spend on improving city roads.
What do you think? Write to us or email timesletters@mrn.co.uk.
A DAD who grew about £10,000 worth of cannabis plants next to his daughter’s toys avoided a prison sentence by the “skin of his teeth”.
David Ward, aged 32, grew between 50 and 60 plants when he was living in Dunrose Close, Wyken.
He appeared before Coventry Crown Court last Thursday and was given a 52-week prison sentence
suspended for two years.
The court heard neighbours alerted police to the situation on September 8 last year because they initially thought the home, which Ward shared with his partner and her three children, was being burgled.
But when officers arrived they discovered the plants growing in a tent in an upstairs bedroom.
As the house was unoccupied at the time, they decided to lie in wait to catch the offenders. And the next morning Ward entered the house with another man who escaped.
Blondol Thompson, prosecuting, said: “In a police interview Ward told officers he was forced into cultivating the plants at his home when he had taken some drugs, but could not afford to pay for them.
“He said the man had told him to grow some drugs in his house to wipe the debt. One of the lamps in the room used had his fingerprints on it, which Ward said could’ve got there because he kept his daughter’s toys in that room.”
Ward, father of three and an ex-fairground ride operator, refused to say who was forcing him into it and pleaded guilty to a charge of cultivating a class B drug.
Judge Philip Gregory told Ward: “You played an important role in cultivating a small cannabis factory. Anybody who operates or cultivates a cannabis factory should go to jail.
“And whether this was a gardening role, as you claimed, or a more serious organisational role you could not complain about a custodial term.
“It is only with the greatest of hesitation that I have been persuaded by your barrister that I can just suspend your sentence.
“You have avoided going down those steps to prison by the skin of your teeth.”
Ian Speed, defending, described his client as “educationally inadequate”.
“He has little understanding of what he is doing and the serious nature of it,” he added.
Ward claimed his drug dealer delivered the plants to his home and forced him to set up the drug factory.
Police estimated his crop was just three weeks away from harvest and expected to produce more than a kilogram of cannabis.
JUDGES deciding which British museum or gallery should win a £100,000 cash prize have been on a tour of the Herbert.
The venue, in Jordan Well, is one of 11 across the country in the running for the prestigious Art Fund Prize.
It has made it onto the long list and now the judges have to decide whether it will make it onto the final shortlist of four.
The cash prize would be a major boost for the museum, which has suffered from a £30,000 funding cut from Coventry City Council.
The Art Fund judges will decide which museum or gallery demonstrates originality and imagination based on a project completed last year.
They are basing their decision on their visits and also comments from the public on why their favourite venue should win.
Chief executive Ludo Keston said: “Being nominated is another way the people of the city can see the way their museum is valued in the wider world.
“It is a testament to the hard work and dedication of our staff team who work tirelessly to ensure that we bring history and the arts to life in the city every day when we open our doors. The visitor’s response to our work has been astounding with over 310,000 visitors passing through our doors in the last year alone.
“We hope to have even better news to announce when the judges of this prestigious award have finished their deliberations later in the year.”
After the tour, judge Kathy Gee, said: “It’s a tremendous achievement to be on the list.
“It’s wonderful to see so many families enjoying the variety of stories and treasures that The Herbert has to offer.”
The Herbert was recently named the Best Family Friendly Museum in Britain by The Guardian Family Friendly Awards.
Voting and commenting for the long lists closes on May 7, announcement of the shortlist opens on May 17 until June 18, before a winner is titled on June 30.
For more information, or to vote, visit www.artfundprize.org.uk.
A LICENSEE has to pay £600 for failing to prevent flytipping.
Balwinder Singh Thukral, aged 51, of Burbages Lane, Rowleys Green, was fined and ordered to pay the costs for failing to take appropriate checks to prevent flytipping, which included a sofa being dumped and bags of rubbish.
The case was brought after Coventry City Council’s environmental crime unit received a complaint that a large amount of waste had been dumped in Church Walk, Allesley and Jubilee Crescent, in Radford, last April.
Officers visited the site and found evidence among the waste which linked it to The Vault public house in High Street in the city centre.
A visit to the premises showed the public house was closed and undergoing extensive refurbishment.
Mr Thukral was served with a notice under the Environmental Protection Act that told him to provide evidence regarding who he had employed to remove the waste.
During the investigation it was found Thukral had not taken appropriate checks to prevent the flytipping.
He pleaded guilty at Coventry Crown Court on Wednesday April 7 where he received a fine of £250 and ordered to pay costs of £350.
Joy Adams, the council’s principal environmental health officer, said: “All businesses have a legal duty of care to ensure their waste is taken to a licensed waste site by a registered waste carrier.
“As part of their duty they must also keep a record through waste transfer notes so as to prove that their waste has not been flytipped.
“As part of the city council’s fight against flytipping, officers from the environmental crime unit are regularly visiting businesses to check they have got appropriate waste contracts.”
Any business wishing to check whether a waste carrier is registered or for further information can call the Environment Agency on 08708 506 506 or visit www.environment-agency.gov.uk.
