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[MSE Lawrence]

Poll between 17-25 March 2008: Results

What’s the cost of parking fines?

The free Budget Planner microcategorises spending, but the car section doesn’t include fines. Are these now such an annual part of people’s expenditure that they should be included?

Are parking fines so unavoilable in a clamping culture that they should be factored in?

What’s your typical annual spend on parking fines?

A. Nothing. I’ve NEVER had one. - 42% (3144 votes)
B. Limited. I’ve only EVER had one or two. - 43% (3260 votes)
C. Up to £50/year. - 4% (309 votes)
D. £51 - £150/year. - 5% (401 votes)
E. £151 - £299. - 1% (89 votes)
F. £300 plus. - 1% (88 votes)
G. I don't drive - 3% (261 votes)

Voting has now closed, but you can still click reply to discuss below.

[nephilim]

I dont get fined, because I know where to park without paying and without getting fined!

[usa1]

I have been given 2 tickets in the past. Now I always park on side roads when I go to town. I know that I have to walk a bit further than if I pay to park. Parking Attentants are like vultures round here and have been know to hide in bushes etc.

[Moneymonkey]

I've been fined a few times now. But my car parking fees are huge! I'm glad I don't have to commute & park at the station! £6.50 a day now!

[McSaver]

I dont get fined because I dont drive

[GizmoBradwell]

It depends where you drive.

Could we include which town each voting person drives in? All the votes beyond B; will most likely live in LONDON, where parking regulations are a viable, high-profit-buisness sub-culture.

Even the conjestion charge is synonymous with conjestion fine

[peekay]

We were fined £50.00 for overunning our parking time by five minutes. No problem with being fined, but I do think that the punishment does not suit the crime. Has anyone ever questioned if the level of parking fines are justified? Bear in mind the original parking fee was £2.50, so the fine is twenty times this fee. Seems reminiscent of other unfair fees eg. banking charges. (Apologies for going off on a tangent!)

Originally Posted by MSE Lawrence

Poll Started 17 March 2008:

What’s the cost of parking fines?

The free Budget Planner microcategorises spending, but the car section doesn’t include fines. Are these now such an annual part of people’s expenditure that they should be included?

Are parking fines so unavoilable in a clamping culture that they should be factored in?

What’s your typical annual spend on parking fines?

A. Nothing. I’ve NEVER had one.
B. Limited. I’ve only EVER had one or two.
C. Up to £50/year.
D. £51 - £150/year.
E. £151 - £299.
F. £300 plus.
G. I don't drive

Vote here or click reply to discuss below.

[sparrer]

I've only ever had one, for £110. I was unwell - later diagnosed Norovirus - so pulled into Moto Services on M6 south of Preston, took a couple of flu pills and fell asleep. I was there 3 hours 10 mins. 2 weeks later I got a letter from Parking Eye saying parking is 2 hours max. I didn't know service areas had a max time limit, and I certainly wasn't well enough to think of wandering about looking for notices! As I'm contesting the original £50 fine it's now £110, £30 of which is 'admin fee'

[Grumpy old git]

I avoid the potential for parking fine like most people, I avoid even more the new style 'Traffic Enforcement Officers' (another branch of the plastic policemen).
The answer to what's the cost is that my spending is done out of town whenever possible, so the cost is to the city centre retailer and ultimately to the inner city centres regeneration programs that councils promote in order to get more people in their city centres.
Those that benefit - me (less stress) and retailers with associated parking places.
Incidently the 'Car' is the income target for Government and Councils because car identity is so tied up now in law and along with Numberplate readers makes it easy to trip up the poor motorist. Just wait till id cards come in with biometric data then all the 'authorities have to do is perfect stand off retina identification techniques and we've all had it.

[Mozette]

I got a parking fine the first time I ever went out on my own! The only one ever, I learnt my lesson. Don't own a car now, it costs too much, I hire one if I need to and it's shedloads cheaper.

[jonathan james]

WHY HAS NOBODY ON MARTIN'S TIPS SAID THIS EARLIER?
DO NOT PAY THAT FINE YET!

I started a thread once about parking fines and I am amazed nobody could help me out. They basically just said that I would have to be careful more in the future. However after purchasing an orange book on amazon "fight a motoring ticket", I discovered unless a parking ticket is issued by the council, they are not legally entitled to charge any more (or fine) than what they did not make in lost revenue for the time that you were there. Sorry if I put that across in a long winded way.

I protested for two parking tickets that my wife got about 9 months ago. One had escalated beyond the original figure (about £60), the other about £30. When I explained what the law says on this as outlined in the orange book, I was interested in the outcome. One of the companies never replied and they never hassled us with any more letters demanding money. The other company wrote explaining they disagreed with my interpretation of the law and they thought we should pay. However, after that they never wrote back and it seems that they conceded that they could not get anything out of us.

[abcdenicola]

I live in the Southwark borough of London where no matter how careful you are, you are bound to get caught. Each time it happens to me, I vow that I'll never let it happen again, but still manage to fall foul of the dreaded parking wardens.

I've already appealed twice and one of the appeals is still under consideration... I'm anxious to see what the outcome will be. But whatever happens, the moral of the story is that this is a lovely cash cow for the council and we poor hapless motorists are more often than not, victims of highway robbery in the truest sense of the word!

[Dorrie]

I personally have never had a parking ticket. I buy my ticket and keep an eye on the time. Where I live, Saffron Walden, we have a market square where there are designated parking places in the centre for most days of the week (not market days), but round the side of the market square there are no yellow lines. There are, however, the yellow plates on a lamppost showing when you can park. Personally I think this is unfair and that yellow lines should be painted - after all, how many people look around for the yellow plate? If I went elsewhere I would look for yellow lines on the road!

I can see the situation from the other side as well. I used to work for the local authority as an audit clerk, and one of my jobs was to keep a record of the parking tickets issued (and, when he was away, to patrol the local carparks myself and issue tickets). I then had to find out the registered keeper if the fine was not paid. Then I would write to the registered keeper asking for the name of the driver - and this was where people often made mistakes. You would get blustering letters from people saying that they weren't going to pay the fine, etc (mostly they hadn't bought a ticket in the first place) and in the end we took them to court, where they invariably lost their case because they were actually being taken to court for the offence of not telling us who the driver of the vehicle was at the time of the offence! People just didn't read the letters properly. We had a lot of repeat offenders - some people are just too thick to learn!

[Forever Forest]

Are we talking about fines that are governed by the road traffic act? ie road parking/traffic wardens.

Or, can we include fines that are enforced by private companies such as the Civil Enforcement Ltd? (Superstore car parks etc) I have had one of these fines, done my research and discoverd that it is not enforceable in British law. Therefore have refused to pay despite letters from them and debt collecting agencies. They imitate the road traffic act (ie public roads) in an attempt to get you to pay but are simply not governed under the Road Traffic Act.

So, I suppose my fine (although not paid) for the year is £90 !!

[Ashburn House]

I used the National Parking Adjudication Service (NPAS) to successfully apeal a parking fine in Trafford - my letter to them read :-

The yellow lines on (street name) in the vicinity of where my car was parked on (date) were not correctly coded in that they did not terminate in a T-bar at either end.
The size, shape and wording on signs and width, colour and length of road markings are rigidly specified in the Traffic Signs Regulations and General Directions2002 (TSR&GD). Yellow lines must have a T-bar where they terminate or change from a single to a double yellow line or vice-versa. If the signs do not comply with the regulations or the lines have the T-bars missing then the restrictions are not enforceable.
I attach a photograph of the locality where my car was parked (it was some feet to the right of this position), together with photographs of where the double lines terminate. At one end they terminate without a T-bar in (Street name) and at the other similarly in (Street name). The double yellow lines are also defective in the vicinity of the car.
A copy of the correct coding from the HMSO TSR&GD is attached for your consideration together with maps of the relevant area (from www.multimap.com).
In view of this evidence regarding incorrect road lining I would be grateful if you cancelled the parking ticket (nuimber provided) issued (date).

The council decided not to contest my appeal and cancelled my liablity to pay a fine.

[roboticpink]

I paid £340 in parking fines last year - for ONE fine - even though I was parked with a residents permit, in a residents bay. Thames Water were doing roadworks nearby (with NO suspension notices in the area I parked in). I went away for a week, came back - where's the car? Not here. The roadworks had been extended over where the car had been parked, and the workmen said they had seen the car in the residents bay.

The council produced "photo evidence" of my car on a yellow line - very badly parked, about 1 foot from the kerb at the nearest point and at a diagonal, so the other set of wheels were about 2 feet from the kerb. A really dangerous place to leave a car. I contested it with the council, with Thames water and with the towing company (who also damaged my car - another £90 in repairs) - they kept producing "photo evidence" of suspension notices (nowhere near where I left my car, they were down the road on the other side of the roadworks and about 100m from where the car was parked), and the car in this ridiculous parking spot conveniently located just over the road from where I'd originally parked the car.

Obviously someone moved my car to the yellow line, took a photo of it and towed it off. B*****ds!!!

I was even really nice to the towing people and pointed out that they'd made a mistake on their forms that left me £80 better off - and paid the £80 when they corrected it!

What I learned: 1) do not park near roadworks
2) a residents permit is not enough
3) if more than one company is involved, each will blame the other ad infinitum and you will get nowhere
4) do not park in Hammersmith
5) I have a really, REALLY bad temper when I'm cross and go bright red.


Eventually I just moved to a house with a driveway.

[Pennystricken_Student]

I left my car for 45 mins by a empty building at 7.30pm one evening, on return i heard a clamp being attached and was told it was £295 for release!! I was made to go to a cash point and pay the full amount in cash there and then. I was scared to say the least. I rang the police to check that this was legit and they said they could nothing to help me. The firm was Midland Parking Contracts and the BBC INside and Out and have since done a program on them (twice now- one a year ago). The owe by law over £17,000 to the public for excessive clamping fines yet there is no one answerable at their registered address and therefore no one is getting their money back even though the have won their small claims court hearing. It sickens me that this government lets that happen. Should any of us law abiding citizens ever put a foot wrong we would never be let off. MPC are going down one day - mark my words.

[gb57]

Cor, Roboticpink, I am getting angry just reading your post !

I think I might have been tempted to commit a murder if that were me - I can't STAND injustice.

Also, this business of being fined if you stay in a motor services car park for over 2 hours - do they think we find it a pleasurable experience???????

How about getting your car towed while you are in hospital having radiotherapy for cancer, and coming out feeling very sick and ill, only to find NO CAR. Happened to someone I met while I was having my treatment. The car was parked outside the Royal Marsden hospital - now was that not a giveaway to the towing company and traffic warden?

Grrr - I am upset for the whole evening now!!

[jamieukonline]

http://www.majicari.com/

get your tickets paid for

[r.kermali99]

my mum got a parking ticket even though her pay and display ticket was valid at the time.

its just ridiculous. how do we let our country give authority to such incompetent fools?

i sent a letter with a copy of the pay and display ticket...but lambeth are retards, so it will take like 3 months before i hear from them.

*sigh*