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Tuesday 19 January 2016

Government to regulate private parking

The Government today announced they are to bring in new regulations to curb the rogue elements of private parking.

The regulations will come into force on 6th April 2016.

Currently there are no details on what these regulations will be, apart from the following.
amendments to off-street parking legislation will balance the right of land owners to control the use of their land and protect drivers from unscrupulous practices
Happy Parking

The Parking Prankster

19 comments:

  1. so not able to contribute via consultation?

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  2. Let's hope they don't dream up another po-faced PoFA again!

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  3. From The Times 26/12/15:-

    The Times has learnt that the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) is preparing to introduce new legislation to regulate the industry. A strategy paper will be published in the new year to regulate off-street parking on private land.

    Almost 600 parking companies and local councils have been barred from obtaining motorists’ records in the past decade after being accused of abusing the system.

    A DCLG spokesman said: “Excessive fees put people off driving to high streets and damage local retailers and businesses. That is why we have been consulting on the way private parking operates and will report back shortly.”

    New measures under consideration include:

    •Capping the size of penalties issued by parking companies, possibly bringing them into line with fines handed out by local authorities, which are limited to £50 for common car park violations, rising to £80 in the centre of London;

    •Imposing greater restrictions on access to the DVLA database, limiting it to a smaller number of operators;

    •Forcing all operators to meet the same code of practice on clear signs in car parks and tickets, while preventing them using aggressive bailiffs to chase up unpaid fines;

    •Giving all motorists in private car parks a 10-minute “grace period” when they overstay, which local councils already have to provide;

    •Provision of the same transparent appeals process to enable drivers to challenge penalties.

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  4. 1: bailiffs are not used for chasing up private parking charges , until they have been to court.
    2: grace periods are already part of the BPA/IPC code of practice.
    if the Times can't get it right , what chance the government!

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    Replies
    1. Well you can't get it right either! While technically you are correct with (1), there are many reported instances of "Bailiff" companies using letters which emulate very closely legal bailiff documents in order to scare their victims.

      And as far as (2) is concerned, since when did a CoP make much difference to these sharks? If reported they may get a slap on the wrist with a damp feather, but not much more!

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  5. It's the right noises. Let's see what the grunting sounds like once the usual suspects have done a bit of "lobbying".

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  6. Government is pretty much run by Capita (owners of ParkingEye)and financial and career interests mean that boat won't be rocked. Maybe the smaller most outrageous cowboys will be reined in a little.

    On the other hand, our friends at DVLA will be able to continue their suspiciously generous relationship with PPCs and ParkingEye in particular, selling our personal data without any real safeguards. They already treat with contempt any attempt to get the truth via FOI requests. And the govt seems to want to make FOI even less 'burdensome' for such agencies.

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    1. DVLA hogwash whitewash in all its glory, right here today!

      https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/correspondense_in_connection_wit?nocache=incoming-756239#incoming-756239

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  7. If they really want to bring PPCs in line with councils then they should be banned from using ANPR cameras for parking "enforcement" Councils are not allowed to use them, so let's have a level playing field. This blog and others have repeatedly shown how unreliable they are.

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  8. Very interesting, particularly the speed with which the reforms are due to be introduced.

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  9. The fuller information on the notice states that
    https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/new-regulatory-reforms-for-uk-businesses

    "New regulatory and deregulatory measures for UK business are being brought into force by the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) and other government departments on the 6 April 2016 (common commencement date).

    We look to bring such new measures into force on one of two common commencement dates each year (the other being 1 October) and to give businesses 12 weeks advance notice of what changes to expect on each of these dates."

    It's only 11 weeks until 6th April so the PPCs should already have been informed of what changes to expect.

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    1. The BPA claimed no knowledge of what it contains a few days ago...

      http://www.britishparking.co.uk/News/monday-musing-4-things-to-look-forward-to-in-2016

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  10. And it has now been taken down and was apparently published in error?

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  11. Let's just hope they don't apply criminal law to it.

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  12. Maybe not...

    PP's link now returns this message:

    The page you're looking for is no longer available

    The information on this page has been removed because it was published in error.

    This document was publish in error

    Is there anything wrong with this page?

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    Replies
    1. They removed this as 'published too soon', but have now republished elsewhere

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