UK NEWS
PARKING FINE CHAOS STARTS TODAY
COSTLY: Penalties will range from £40 to £120
By John Ingham Transport Editor
Motorists face yet more misery from today as a chaotic new system of parking fines comes into force.
Penalties will range from £40 to as high as £120 – rising to £180 for late payers – simply according to where in the country you park.
Drivers can now be fined under one of five different systems, depending on the local council, in a move described by AA president Edmund King as “a fine mess”.
Outside London, councils can choose to apply one of two different bands, while the capital can use three. Each band has two tiers of fines – a lower level for less serious offences such as overstaying at a parking meter and a higher one for more serious breaches such as using a disabled bay without a pass.
But the long list of higher-level breaches also includes parking more than 19in from the kerb or using a parking place designated for diplomatic vehicles.
In addition, motorists will run the gauntlet of yet more Big Brother cameras, with councils able to issue fines based on CCTV evidence.
Traffic wardens, to be renamed civil enforcement officers, will be able to fine people without putting tickets on windscreens as they patrol parking spaces – now called civil enforcement areas.
Instead, they will be able to put the demand to pay up in the post.
The changes are being introduced under the Traffic Management Act. It will replace the standard £60 parking fine outside London with fines of £50, rising to £75 if paid late, and £70 rising to £105 for late payment in Band A. Band B will have fines of £40 rising to £60 for late payment and £60 going up to £90.
Inside London, a three-tier system will see fines for the lowest-level offences range from £40
to £80, through a middle band to highest-level offences which will attract fines of £80 to £120, with late payment fines of up to £180.
The new regime is the latest assault on drivers, who already face about 6,000 speed cameras and pay around £42billion in various motoring taxes.
A full list of offences laid down by the Department for Transport reveals that drivers will be given stiffer fines for parking on double yellow lines or in disabled or residents’ bays without a permit or for blocking a driveway.
But they will pay a lower fine for overstaying on a meter, parking outside bay markings or waiting with the engine running.
Barrie Segal, founder of parking appeals service AppealNow.com, predicted that the new system will cause untold confusion. He said: “It spells pandemonium for motorists and is a licence to print money. I fear for the motoring public. They don’t know what is going to hit them.
“Those outside London are going to be dismayed when CCTV starts to be used to issue tickets. In London, cameras have been used in a completely arbitrary and cynical way to raise revenue. It has nothing to do with safety. It is all about money.”
Shadow Roads Minister Robert Goodwill warned that letting councils put parking tickets in the post would reduce the ability of motorists to contest fines.
He said: “If a driver does not get a ticket until a week after the event, he will not have been in a position to collect any evidence or find any witnesses that would allow him to challenge the fine.”
A Department for Transport spokesman said the system will be fairer by making the fine “fit the act”, and denied that the five-band system was confusing.”
The Transport Minister Rosie Winterton said: “Parking rules exist to help beat congestion and improve safety.
“These regulations will help make parking enforcement fairer, clearer and more open.”
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PARKING FINES CHAOS
01.04.08, 12:17pm
ok burning down the houses of parliment would proberly do the trick.JOKE .
• Posted by: crazyhorse • Report Comment
PARKING FINES CHAOS
01.04.08, 12:14pm
the world and his dog knows that parking fines congestion charges ,bin fines ,etc etc are fines to supplement councils and government champagne life style .public bodys are creating golden jobs ,with fantastic ,expensis and pension packets whilst council and government performance is failing the british public.what exactually do we pay our council taxes for ,congestion is caused by the massive housing programmes in already congested areas ,a nice little earner for those concerned .the country is begining to stink of corrupt government officials who write the law with the lords to shaft the british public.we must follow the great man ghandi and have non violent protest to bring our greedy and incompitent officials to heel.
• Posted by: crazyhorse • Report Comment
COME TO KETTERING AS THERE IS NO PARKING ENFORCEMENT AT ALL!!
01.04.08, 2:05am
Can I suggest that anyone who likes the freedom to park anywhere they like, on pavements, on yellow lines, obstructing drives in fact you name it you can literally do it in Kettering!
Absolutely true by the way.
Kettering has no parking enforcement whatsoever and hasn't had any for a number of years now. They also don't use CCTV to enforce parking either? Thus, you can leave your car anywhere you like and the chances of getting a ticket are about zero since the Police don't do parking enforcement in Northants - too busy chasing Basil Brush I think?!
The council admit they have no plans to enforce parking so it's a free for all now and probably almost unique, unless you know of a town near you with no wardens?
• Posted by: Robertocarlo • Report Comment
UNFAIR COUNCIL BEHAVIOUR
31.03.08, 11:18pm
Driving for 18 years without a parking ticket and received 2 within weeks recently (both CCTV), the first for parking with the wheels on the pavement (no other markings) for about 10 minutes while I went into the post office, the second I pulled over into what I thought was a parking bay unfortunately turned out to be a loading bay to attend to my 2 year old son while he was having an asthma attack in the back of the car (for 4 minutes, car was still running with lights on and no one entered or left the car).
Beware, even if you park outside your own home on the pavement you will be fined as they now have mobile cameras too!
Managed to contest the second one successfully (didn't bother with the 1st), I suggest everyone contests every fine!
• Posted by: Robbie • Report Comment
WE SHOULD NOT TAKE THIS SITTING DOWN
31.03.08, 9:49pm
The one thing the derranged burecratic mind relies on in the endless comformity of the British people - to take it on the chine as it were and soldier on....in this date of instantaneous communcations - we should orgnise acampaing againt this nonsense - a parking fien strikewould eb a good starting point - millions of unpaid ptrivial parking fines will soon bring the system to its knees....
• Posted by: redtsar • Report Comment
JUST USE THE BILL OF RIGHTS DEFENCE
31.03.08, 4:57pm
Local Authority have no lawful authority to demand money for an alleged infringement that has not been dealt with by a Court of Law.
Bill of Rights Act 1689
"That all grants and promises of fines and forfeitures of particular persons before conviction are illegal and void".
• Posted by: PaulH • Report Comment
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