Among the new rights, which are to be enshrined in a new private parking code of practice, will be…
- A guaranteed five minutes to decide whether to park;
- A guaranteed 10 minutes to leave car parks without facing a penalty once the session has ended;
- An appeal to get charges cancelled for honest mistakes (including stopping briefly to check directions) and problems outside drivers’ control (vehicle breakdowns, medical emergencies, broken ticket machines);
- A cap of £20 on charges for smaller mistakes such as forgetting parking permits, entering a vehicle registration wrong or forgetting to confirm the registration in a parking machine;
- A cap of £100 on all private parking charges.
Prime Minister Andy Burnham said previous practices left “people feeling ripped off and out of pocket, so I’m putting a stop to them… while going after the deliberate scams that rip drivers off”.
‘Step in the right direction’ – but some demands not included
The number of parking tickets has surged from 14.4 million to 16.9 million over the year to the end of March, with the parking industry attributing the trend to the rising number of car parks being managed.
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Both the AA and the RAC have praised the changes, with the RAC saying they are “a step in the right direction to protect drivers from poor practices”.
However, establishing a unified appeals body and a ban on adding debt recovery fees on top of parking charge notices were not included, the organisation pointed out.
Charges would need to be stopped from “being issued in the first place” especially when there was no wrongdoing, the AA said, but added it was “hopeful” further measures could be added.
