New parking ticket rules – hmmm…

As someone who has been ‘awarded’ the odd parking ticket now and again, I am a little unsure how to receive the new parking regulations which have come into force throughout England. Ruth Kelly, the transport secretary, has suggested that they will be more “motorist friendly”, I should hope so!

In 1993 parking enforcement was taken out of the hands of the police and handed over to local authorities, along with the revenues generated by fines and since then the number of parking tickets has increased at an unbelievable rate, in London alone they went from 3.2m to 5m between 1996 and 2006. Indeed parking fines have been an all too easy way of raising money. Many local authorities subcontract parking enforcement to private, profit-making companies that are paid on a performance basis. And here lies the problem. By its very nature a profit making company will inevitably be motivated to extract as much money as possible from motorists. This will possibly explain why some local authorities or their subcontractors have not only set targets for traffic wardens but have also been known to offer incentives such as free televisions and holidays to wardens who hand out the most tickets.

The new guidelines are clear “Raising revenue should not be an objective of parking enforcement, nor should targets be set for raising revenue or the number of penalty notices to be issued”. Also Drivers will be able to have their appeals heard by telephone instead of attending hearings or ask for appeals to be switched to their home town. However with the introduction of CCTV footage to enforce rules and impose fines the new rules could make it more difficult for motorists to appeal as parking ticket will be received several days after an alleged offence.

The AA’s head of road policy Paul Watters explains the problem:“It does introduce an element of delay, because these things won’t land on people’s doormats for a few weeks perhaps, so you’ve forgotten the offence probably, it doesn’t give you an opportunity to check the signs and lines and make sure everything’s in order,” he said.

So although I would like to be optimistic and broadly welcome the new changes I cannot help think that most local authorities will not be able to wean themselves off one of the most lucrative sources of income. Did you know that in 1997 councils made £638m from parking fines, in 2005 the figure was £1.16 billion, that’s a lot of tickets and a lot of money!