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Parking bosses call for ticketers’ code (From Daily Echo)
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Parking Association backs Echo's call for crackdown on clampers turning to ticketing
1:40pm Tuesday 16th October 2012 in News
By Patrick Knox, Senior Reporter
Parking bosses call for ticketers’ code
Car parking bosses have today backed the Daily Echo campaign to crack down on former clamping firms now handing out tickets.
The British Parking Association (BPA) has backed calls to beef up regulations in a bid to stop former clampers using heavy-handed tactics as they switch to ticketing. This comes after the Daily Echo launched its Fair Deal for Drivers campaign, which calls for a clampdown on firms that are unfairly targeting drivers in Hampshire. The BPA, which has more than 150 members, said it is calling on the Department for Transport to make it compulsory for all parking firms to sign up to a national code of conduct. BPA chief executive Patrick Troy said: “The ban on clamping and towing away without lawful authority means it is still possible for so-called ‘rogue ticketers’ to operate throughout the UK, causing distress to motorists.
“We would like to see better regulation of the private parking sector than the coalition Government has offered.”
He also said that all parking firms should be forced to join the BPA. “Currently membership of the BPA, the industry’s professional body, is an ‘opt in’ system and this needs to change so that all motorists are treated fairly and there are legal repercussions for operators who decide not to sign up.”
But the BPA stepped back from backing a local authority-based system of licensing which has been called for by the AA, Southampton Itchen MP John Denham and city council leader Richard Williams. As previously reported, private operators are back in business following the ban on clamping – this time handing out parking tickets and threatening motorists with bailiffs.
This comes after the law changed on October 1, with the Protection of Freedom Act making clamping on private land illegal. But it did allow the former clamping firms to ticket drivers for “parking charges” and pursue drivers using DVLA data.
The Daily Echo Fair Deal for Drivers campaign was launched after the paper was contacted by angry drivers targeted by parking firms which threaten bailiffs and damage to their financial reputation if they do not pay “parking charges”.
Comments(7)
IronLady2010
says...
7:25pm Tue 16 Oct 12
Nicole23 wrote:Totally in agreement with you.
I dont understand what this campaign is about. The worst thing about clamping was that you car was immobilised and you were forced to pay or lose your car.
At least now you can drive away, surely that is an improvement and you can argue about it through the right channels rather than with an 8 foot skinhead.
People cant expect to park wherever they feel like it willy nilly if it effects peoples business.
Park where you are supposed to and you wont get a ticket.
Ginger_cyclist
says...
11:29pm Tue 16 Oct 12
Nicole23 wrote:It's more the stupid amounts they charge, £100 for being somewhere 5 minutes too long? Would you pay it? Didn't think so, legally private parking companies can only charge the driver to the amount a business has lost in revenue, normally a few quid that would just go in one of the pay and display machines, also you have every right to ignore them as they cannot reclaim anything without going through the civil courts first, even then it would be hard to get what they want as you would be able to appeal by saying "prove I was the driver at the time", since it's the DRIVER and the land owner who make a contract when a car parks on the land, it's only the driver who can be chased up for breaking the contract, so if you're a car owner but your car has 2 registered drivers and you get a letter from one of these companies about a parking matter that occurred when you weren't driving and you can prove it, then you won't have to pay a penny, you also probably wouldn't have to pay a penny if the parking company can't prove who was driving.
I dont understand what this campaign is about. The worst thing about clamping was that you car was immobilised and you were forced to pay or lose your car.
At least now you can drive away, surely that is an improvement and you can argue about it through the right channels rather than with an 8 foot skinhead.
People cant expect to park wherever they feel like it willy nilly if it effects peoples business.
Park where you are supposed to and you wont get a ticket.
IronLady2010
says...
12:22am Wed 17 Oct 12
Ginger_cyclist wrote:Surely a Land owner can charge what they like. Try parking on double Yellows, the wardens will fine you £60 or whatever the cost is.
Nicole23 wrote:It's more the stupid amounts they charge, £100 for being somewhere 5 minutes too long? Would you pay it? Didn't think so, legally private parking companies can only charge the driver to the amount a business has lost in revenue, normally a few quid that would just go in one of the pay and display machines, also you have every right to ignore them as they cannot reclaim anything without going through the civil courts first, even then it would be hard to get what they want as you would be able to appeal by saying "prove I was the driver at the time", since it's the DRIVER and the land owner who make a contract when a car parks on the land, it's only the driver who can be chased up for breaking the contract, so if you're a car owner but your car has 2 registered drivers and you get a letter from one of these companies about a parking matter that occurred when you weren't driving and you can prove it, then you won't have to pay a penny, you also probably wouldn't have to pay a penny if the parking company can't prove who was driving.
I dont understand what this campaign is about. The worst thing about clamping was that you car was immobilised and you were forced to pay or lose your car.
At least now you can drive away, surely that is an improvement and you can argue about it through the right channels rather than with an 8 foot skinhead.
People cant expect to park wherever they feel like it willy nilly if it effects peoples business.
Park where you are supposed to and you wont get a ticket.
If the Council can fine you, why can't private people?
Vonnie
says...
10:16am Wed 17 Oct 12
thedavie
says...
3:59pm Wed 17 Oct 12
Then send a picture showing the permit visible through the windscreen
Oh and they still ask for money & the permits are from their old company that failed last year AS Securi-t Ltd no new ones yet ?
Lots on the forums about this lot
tospig
says...
4:43pm Wed 17 Oct 12
IronLady2010 wrote:The land owner can, a private parking company acting on their behalf can't. As the private company don't own the land they can not offer a contract.
Ginger_cyclist wrote:Surely a Land owner can charge what they like. Try parking on double Yellows, the wardens will fine you £60 or whatever the cost is.
Nicole23 wrote:It's more the stupid amounts they charge, £100 for being somewhere 5 minutes too long? Would you pay it? Didn't think so, legally private parking companies can only charge the driver to the amount a business has lost in revenue, normally a few quid that would just go in one of the pay and display machines, also you have every right to ignore them as they cannot reclaim anything without going through the civil courts first, even then it would be hard to get what they want as you would be able to appeal by saying "prove I was the driver at the time", since it's the DRIVER and the land owner who make a contract when a car parks on the land, it's only the driver who can be chased up for breaking the contract, so if you're a car owner but your car has 2 registered drivers and you get a letter from one of these companies about a parking matter that occurred when you weren't driving and you can prove it, then you won't have to pay a penny, you also probably wouldn't have to pay a penny if the parking company can't prove who was driving.
I dont understand what this campaign is about. The worst thing about clamping was that you car was immobilised and you were forced to pay or lose your car.
At least now you can drive away, surely that is an improvement and you can argue about it through the right channels rather than with an 8 foot skinhead.
People cant expect to park wherever they feel like it willy nilly if it effects peoples business.
Park where you are supposed to and you wont get a ticket.
If the Council can fine you, why can't private people?
and you're confusing council fines with private invoices; two completely different things, and only one is completely legally enforceable.
Nicole23 says...
4:02pm Tue 16 Oct 12
At least now you can drive away, surely that is an improvement and you can argue about it through the right channels rather than with an 8 foot skinhead.
People cant expect to park wherever they feel like it willy nilly if it effects peoples business.
Park where you are supposed to and you wont get a ticket.