Parking: some changes which will affect motorway services
The government published its rather grandiosely named Protection of Freedom Bill last week. It covers a whole tranche of proposals including, among other things, cutting back the CRB system, destruction of DNA samples retained by the police and reducing the maximum time someone can be detained without trial. But it also contains a section on parking enforcement, which will affect the way that MSA operators do it.
The section on parking covers two main things. Firstly, it bans wheelclamping and impounding, which aren’t really relevant here as MSAs don’t use them. But the other major change is that in future, parking operators will be able to recover unpaid parking costs (including penalty charges) from the registered keeper of a vehicle, not just the driver. That gets rid of the commonly-used loophole whereby a notice is sent to the keeper, who then declines either to pay or to name the driver, leaving the parking operator at a dead end. Once the new law is in place, if the operator can’t get their money from the driver, then they will be able to get it from the keeper even if the keeper wasn’t driving at the time.
On the face of it, that’s good news for parking operators (including those at MSAs), and potentially bad news for people who have, in the past been able to exploit that loophole. But this new ability comes with some conditions, and one of the conditions is that it can only be used where a notice has first been given to the driver. And the law stipulates that
A notice to the driver must be given before the vehicle is removed from the land in question (and while it is stationary) by affixing it to the vehicle or by handing it to a person appearing to be in charge of the vehicle.
What that means in practice is that the ability to pursue the registered keeper can’t be used where enforcement is solely by means of ANPR cameras with automated notices sent by post afterwards. To be able to recover charges from the keeper, the car (or the driver) has to be ticketed while on the premises.
So, MSA operators are going to have to make a decision here. If they want to be able to recover parking charges from the registered keepers, then they will need to change their practices. Instead of using ANPR technology, they will need to have parking attendants on site and actually handing out tickets. Alternatively, they can stick with their current system and accept that parking charges are effectively unenforceable, since they have no legal means by which to obtain the identity of the driver.
It will be interesting to see which they choose.
Why do you charge caravans for 24hrs when staying longer than the free 2hr period. I think blocks of 4hrs would be more fair and would encourage more caravanners to spend more money at the services
Comment by Peter Powell — 15 May 2011 @ 9:34 pm
quote the above to someone and this was their reply:
Sorry but this is out of date ..the Bill was amended in the Commons to allow for a notice to keeper to be issued using ANPR..this is still being debated in the Lords so we are a long way off it becoming law.
Also the statement “will be able to get it from the keeper” is more than a little disingenous ..all it means is they would be able to attempt to get it from the keeper via the small claims court …most private parking companies don’t like to do court..they have a proven track record of losing !
It appears to me that with so called “keeper liability” in the offing the BPA / Private Parking Industry are quite keen to promulgate the myth that not knowing who was driving is the ONLY reason they can’t recover their charges in a small claims court action …this of course is nowhere near the truth.
ps: not sure who wrote the article you quote but they clearly don’t know what they are talking about ..the bill does indeed ban clamping and other forms of immobilisation like blocking in . it also bans towing. And yes some MSA’s have been known to use both clamping and towing in the past !
Comment by billstickers — 16 October 2011 @ 3:17 pm
I travel all over Europe and as far as I am aware this is the only country to charge for Motorway parking. I am in France most weeks and find that not only is the parking free but the facilities are often better. It is more relaxing knowing that you can stay as long as you like without having to watcch the clock.
From a road safty point of view if a driver is tired he is unlikly to have a snooze in case he oversleeps and if he were to use a layby he runs the risk of another vehicle running into him, conclusion is that the safe place is barred unless you are prepared to pay for a whole days parking.
an interesting point to note is that 100 lorries parked @ £20.00 each equates to £2000 per night for very little additional outlay The drivers still having to buy food etc (although HGV’s do get some discount in the form of a food voucher). I think that collecting £10,000 a week is quite a good revenue earner. (This money that the frieght companies are paying is coming indirectly from the general public in the form of the price of the goods purchased in shops that they deliver to)
Comment by Eddie Muirhead — 4 February 2012 @ 3:23 pm