Bill Blunder
SIR - As Chief Executive of the Old Town Hall I had need to attend the Parking Shop in St Albans to finally put to rest a long standing (unneccessary) dispute over a ticket issued to a plumber who was attending an emergency in the Town Hall to mend a susp
SIR - As Chief Executive of the Old Town Hall I had need to attend the Parking Shop in St Albans to finally put to rest a long standing (unneccessary) dispute over a ticket issued to a plumber who was attending an emergency in the Town Hall to mend a suspected gas leak and who was ticketed despite being parked in an adjacent 'delivery layby' with a large pre-printed sign on his dashboard explaining what he was doing.
"He was not attending his van at all times," was a point mentioned by the Parking Shop. No - he was in the basement dealing with a gas leak! Despite strong appeals to the Parking Shop, initially refused, it has taken nearly five months to resolve the problem.
My wasted time dealing with this matter however is nothing compared to the following. Whilst waiting in the Parking Shop I took a phone call and politely asked for a scrap of paper to write some details on. I was given a sheet of paper, then completed my business and left.
On returning to the Town Hall I looked at the reverse of the paper given to me and saw it was a complete copy of a statement of someone's credit card account, with all the personal details needed for me (if I was so minded) to take fraudulent action.
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Today I called upon Mr X of X Road in St Albans and showed him the copy. He was quite rightly absolutely horrified that his personal details had been so tardily given out by the Parking Shop.
With his blessing I am writing this letter so that others may be made aware that copies of important personal documents should generally be destroyed once the necessary details are taken, but that specifically anyone taking documents to the Parking Shop should make sure they are destroyed.
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I shall be calling in to the Parking Shop to ask for a full explanation from the manager, and Mr X will be writing to ask for a full written personal apology from the manager as to how such appalling breaches of personal data protection are possible in what ought to be a well run organisation. Oh yes - please see first paragraph!
JOEL BAILLIE-LANE
Chief Executive
Town Hall Arts Centre and Venue Hire
