If only I'd thought of it!

[Archie_tect]

A perfect example of council mismanagement to cheer you up...

Outside Bristol Zoo there is a parking area for 150 cars and 8 buses. The charge for cars is £1.40 and buses £7.

For 25 years the parking was managed by a very pleasant attendant who never missed a day.

Then, one day, he didn't turn up for work so the Zoo Management called the City Council and asked them how he was and to send someone to help out. The Council checked and replied that the parking attendant was the Zoo's own responsibility.


The Zoo checked their files and advised the Council that the attendant must be a Council employee as they didn't pay him. The Council eventually responded that the car park attendant wasn't on the Council's payroll.


Turns out that the man had simply begun to show up 25 years ago, collecting parking money and issuing tickets, putting up signs and helping people. If he'd been turning up 7 days a week all year, every year for 25 years, with a current, estimated income of about £560 per day, imagine how much he's taken ... and no one knows where he is!

 

[Archie_tect]

Aw, come on, that has to be a hoax!

Possibly Uncle Mort, but [it comes from a very trustworthy person who I wouldn't suspect of spreading a hoax].... if it isn't how fantastic would it be!!!

 

[swee'pea99]

Excellent! Reminds me of a story I was once told by a client, who went in to survey a large office building his company had just bought.

Down some dark & gloomy stairs, he came to a dark & gloomy door, which he opened, to find a snug little room containing sofas, a telly, kettle and microwave, darts board, magazines, and three blokes, who greeted him with 'Who are you?' 'Who are you?' he responded. 'We're BT,' said one, indignantly. 'Who are you?' 'I'm Mr Smith, from x, y and z who've just bought this building - what are you doing here?'

It turned out this had for years been 'the BT rest-room', established by no-one knew who, since no-one knew when, on no authority whatsoever. The BT engineers would go out and do a couple of hours' work, then repair to the rest-room, where they'd play cards and drink tea till it was time to go & log off for the day. Needless to say, they were really pissed off to be given their marching orders...

 

[ThePainInSpain]

If I had a fiver for everytime I've heard that one I could retire very comfortably. Carry on though, they say the old ones are the best.

 

[Archie_tect]

Got a client who bought some land from the Coal Board 40 years ago taking out a mortgage which they paid off over 25 years. In 1994 the Land registry rules changed and the Coal Board [now called UK Coal] registered part of the land as being under their own ownership despite knowing that they had sold it, which the Land Registry accepted as they [UK Coal] had documents to show that they had title [40 years ago].... my clients had used a solicitor who had given them a copy of the deeds with the mortgage but not the originals, which someone, somewhere had retained. The couple now have to challenge the Land Registry to try to prove they own the land in dispute.

 

[Archie_tect]

If I had a fiver for everytime I've heard that one I could retire very comfortably. Carry on though, they say the old ones are the best.

I'd only have a fiver! ....sheltered life I suppose!

 

[adds21]

Sorry, but it’s an urban myth started by the Bristol Evening Post several years ago as an April Fools story. There’s even a novel based on the idea now. The Attendant by Bill Lamperes (Link to Amazon).

 

[ThePainInSpain]

Sorry, but it’s an urban myth started by the Bristol Evening Post several years ago as an April Fools story. There’s even a novel based on the idea now. The Attendant by Bill Lamperes (Link to Amazon).

I've heard it used for just about every Zoo and public car park in the UK.

 

[Archie_tect]

I stand corrected, but deflated.... your world-weariness wins the day. I'll try to be more cynical next time.

 

[Archie_tect]

....still good though!

 

[Alun]

Is the post still vacant then? I could relocate.

 

[Archie_tect]

Is the post still vacant then? I could relocate.

You'll have to go to Ross-on-Wye first... that's where the end of the queue is.

 

[Archie_tect]

Touted as a genuine news article, the tale of a Bristol Zoo parking attendant who lined his own pockets with customers' cash for years before going missing with the loot has set cyberspace alight.

But the Evening Post can confirm the story, which has been emailed to thousands of people across the globe in recent months, is nothing more than an urban myth – and the real attendants say the joke is starting to wear thin.

Our newsroom, as well as the offices of Bristol Zoo, has been inundated with messages asking if the story is true, particularly as some versions say it has recently appeared in the Evening Post.

The story has been published on many blogs and forums on the internet and even caught the attention of the police after one person who read it made a complaint.The story in the email being circulated states the car park at Bristol Zoo has been manned by a single attendant for the past 23 years, who had taken advantage of a mix-up between the zoo and the city council over who was responsible for the operation to collect drivers' money for himself before retiring on the proceeds.

Bristol Zoo insists there has never been any confusion over parking attendants and says it has several attendants and more than one car park – none open to coaches.

A version of the story did appear in the Evening Post two years ago – in a feature on urban myths published to coincide with April Fools' Day.

Parking attendant Cliff Smith, 58, who was on duty at the Clifton Down car park yesterday, said: "I've worked here for about five years and it was about two years ago that this email started to circulate. It was around April time, which might explain things, but we didn't really take much notice of it.

"Then in about April of this year it appeared again. Someone mentioned it to me, then a couple of zoo members said it had been circulated around their companies.

"Three days later a policeman turned up because it had gone to Bath and North East Somerset Council and someone there had told the police.

"It's getting a bit boring now but it still seems to going around."

 

[Globalti]

When I was 13 I went to a big school in a very big building. One wet afternoon my pals and I noticed a door on the top floor, which had no handle. It was fairly easy to insert the screwdriver blade of a penknife into the square opening and twist.... to our amazement we found an attic room, empty, completely forgotten, with a nice view from the window. We made it our den and managed to keep it a secret for a couple of years. The school is defunct now, closed down by an abuse scandal.

 

[surfdude]

Possibly Uncle Mort, but [it comes from a very trustworthy person who I wouldn't suspect of spreading a hoax].... if it isn't how fantastic would it be!!!

was this trustworthy person some one you met in the pub one night