Last week saw the culmination of something which I have campaigned for over many years, as the Government published its new Code of Practice for private car park operators. These new measures will be very good news for motorists and go some way to reducing the number of Parking Charge Notices received.
Private car parks feature all around Mid-Cornwall, and there
are many reputable and well-run local operations. But sadly, there are also
others, often run by faceless national organisations, that behave poorly and
often fine car park users for minor or accidental breaches. These firms can
often be incredibly inflexible and officious in imposing strict and unclear
terms and conditions and will not listen to reasonable points when genuine
mistakes have been made.
I am regularly contacted by both visitors and local people
who have been stung by these unfair charges. For residents, this can result in
people being discouraged from parking in and using their town centres, and in
the case of visitors, these experiences can ruin a holiday and lead to them not
coming back to Cornwall in the future. Both cause ripple effects that impact on
many other local businesses while the parking firms rake in the fines.
The Government’s changes in this area have been being
planned for some time, understandably delayed by the pandemic but were
announced last week and operators have until next year to apply them.
I first supported them when they came forward as a Private
Members Bill in 2018 and subsequently sat on the Bill Committee in Parliament
where the government backed the bill, to ensure this legislation was given the
detailed scrutiny and input that it deserved.
At the time, evidence showed that, private firms issued
roughly 22,000 parking tickets every day, and parking firms were issuing almost
13 times more tickets than a decade ago. often adopting a system of misleading
and confusing signage, aggressive debt collection and unreasonable fees
designed to extort money from motorists.
In the face of this evidence, the Parking (Code of Practice)
Act was subsequently passed by Parliament and became law in 2019, which meant
the Government could then consult widely on the contents of its Code of Practice.
This in turn led to the announcement last week of the Parking
Code of Practice
The Code includes a maximum cap for parking fines, a
10-minute grace period before a late fine can be issued, and a requirement for
parking firms to clearly display pricing and terms and conditions.
In England outside of London and in Wales, charges will be
reduced from £100 to £70 or £50, depending on the seriousness of the breach.
Private firms which breach the new Code could even be barred
from collecting fines from motorists at all.
Currently, private parking firms are able to hide behind
non-specific, pseudo-legal and aggressive language when pursuing motorists. The
Code of Practice will provide new higher standards.
Firms which break these rules could be barred from
requesting Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) data, making them unable
to pursue motorists for their charges through the post.
A new, simpler appeals process is also being created, to
make it easier for disputed fines to be cancelled.
This is an issue on which I have spent many years
campaigning for change and it is pleasing to see the work I and other MPs have
put in, bringing about real positive change at last.
I hope that these sensible and practical changes will
provide better regulation for an industry that does need it and will reduce the
number of miserable experiences that people have when they are unfairly fined
when using private carparks both around Cornwall and across the UK in the
future.
