Parking stories in the News/media

Nellymoser

https://www.express.co.uk/life-style/cars/2240425/andy-burnham-driving-cost-of-ownership?int_source=amp_continue_reading&int_medium=amp&int_campaign=continue_reading_button#amp-readmore-target

Consumer writer Auto Express, told Express.co.uk: “The Government has a nasty habit of doing things ‘to’ motorists and not ‘for’ them. Motorists are already paying heavily through VAT, VED, fuel duty, insurance taxes, tolls and parking charges and enough is enough."

Nellymoser

https://www.thestar.co.uk/news/traffic-and-travel/parking-prices-sheffield-increase-revealed-8931083

Residents warn the parking charge increase will drive more people to Meadowhall rather than the city centre.

● “We don’t go into the city centre. Driving or by bus. Free parking at Meadowhall and you don’t get wet when it’s raining.”

● “I see absolutely no reason to go into the city so don’t have a problem parking. If I did need to buy anything the shops are all at Meadowhall with free parking. I don't get wet and don’t need to dodge the sleeping bags in the shop doorways.”

● “I park in Atkinsons and never have a problem getting a parking space. Price is reasonable.”

● “Can you actually get into the city centre to park without being snared by an insidious bus gates or CAZ? “

kryten3000

Meadowhall is infested with Minster Baywatch and their requirement to register for parent and child spaces.

Umkomaas

Warburton Bridge from The Times.

https://www.thetimes.com/article/932c4d6e-4ea5-46c3-97ca-9765be52b511?shareToken=ec7a0e2888da096d4a4ddfc9e69dd04d

1505grandad

At least the DVLA is mentioned several times in this article as the beginning of the scams :-

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/money/economy/private-parking-firms-hit-a-record-16-9-million-tickets-as-watchdog-steps-in/ar-AA2ba3J2?ocid=hpmsn&cvid=6a92f76a96944c3a95e1f2ab1acc1f1d&ei=48

"Five companies accounted for nearly half of all DVLA keeper-detail requests made by parking firms in the first half of the 2024/25 financial year: ParkingEye, Euro Car Parks, Horizon Parking, Smart Parking and APCOA Parking. Each DVLA request typically precedes a parking charge notice sent to a registered keeper’s home address, often weeks after the alleged contravention took place.

The scale of the rise is stark set against a static backdrop. The UK’s car parc has grown only modestly over the same period, while the number of tickets issued by private operators has jumped by roughly 150%. Each of those 16.9 million tickets typically starts life as a request to the DVLA for the registered keeper’s name and address, submitted so the parking firm can send a penalty notice by post, often weeks after the driver has forgotten the visit ever happened. A standard charge runs to around £100, which on the RAC’s figures puts the value of tickets issued this year at close to £1.7 billion before any discounts or successful appeals are taken into account.

Under the CMA’s new consumer protection powers, a company found to have broken the law can be fined up to 10% of its global turnover, or £300,000 if that figure is higher. Euro Car Parks has separately appealed an earlier £473,000 penalty issued by the CMA for failing to comply with an information notice, a case that remains ongoing and is distinct from the new investigation into its parking practices."

Bazarius

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82120457#Comment_82120457

There’s a victim who has received a UTCN incorrectly issued to the wrong person . The car in the photo is not even the right colour. Appealed it with evidence of her car and it was rejected ….. there’s no independent appeals available to resolve this matter?

You’d think they’d have learned something from VCS v Ferguson - clearly not !

kryten3000

Not sure if this has been posted:

https://www.northamptonchron.co.uk/news/politics/council/kick-in-the-teeth-northampton-general-hospital-nurse-slams-outrageous-new-parking-charges-for-nhs-workers-8943520

Coupon-mad

This article talks about the possibility of a refund …and pigs might fly!

So sadly it sounds like this duped person actually PAID £510 to DCB group for three non-POFA parking charges from NCP years ago:

https://www.theboltonnews.co.uk/news/26482564.driver-frustrated-510-parking-fine-two-years/?ref=cprfa

"Frustrated" doesn't cut it.

Extorted?

Coupon-mad

Not sure what NCP mean by a 'faulty parking reader' but why aren't they cancelling all PCNs and refunding the duped victims who paid up like idiots?

https://www.theboltonnews.co.uk/news/26497681.older-motorists-hardest-hit-bolton-market-parking-fine-error/?ref=cprfa

Maybe because they are in administration!

Coupon-mad

As we already know, older people are being treated unfairly and being digitally excluded by parking firms using apps:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c0m3zkd98zno

Older drivers have admitted to feeling "extremely nervous" of using cashless car parks out of fear they will be hit with a parking charge or scammed.

They voiced their concerns to the BBC after Roland Nice, 89, from Bury St Edmunds, in Suffolk, was handed a £60 fine after being left confused over how to pay to park

(Roland Nice said he was "clobbered" with his fine after driving into the Swan Lane car park, in Haverhill, before spending eight minutes trying to work out how to pay.

After being overwhelmed by the digital payment options on offer, he wrongly believed he could not pay with cash and left to park elsewhere, despite cash payments being accepted.

He then received a £60 fine from operator Napier Parking Ltd, which told the BBC that motorists were afforded a five-minute grace period to decide whether to park or not).

He is one of millions of people who suffer a similar fate each year. According to the RAC, a record 16.9 million parking charges were issued by private companies in 2025/26.

While not all of those 'fines' were a result of mature motorists' struggle with technology, many of the region's more senior citizens do feel the digital divide is widening. Car parking apps are mobile phone applications that enable drivers to pay for parking digitally. 

Angela Carruthers, 79, from Kelvedon, in Essex, said she recently went into a Colchester car park only to find its ticket machine replaced with an app. Having been unable to pay after the app reportedly failed to work, she says she was now "waiting with trepidation" to see if she gets a £100 fine. "We've been using this car park for many years, but as we drove in, we noticed instructions to pay by app only," she said.

"There were small groups of people trying to download the app, with varying degrees of success. I am used to using various apps, but with parking, an alternative method of payment by card should always be available."

Paul Chamberlain, 69, from Ipswich but now living in Cambridge, said he consciously avoids such car parks. "I get extremely nervous about paying through my phone for car parking because a lot of them rely on QR codes. You hear so many horror stories about people putting false QR codes over the top of the notice, and that worries me a lot."

Sarah Martinelli, from Letchworth, Hertfordshire, said parking firms were "not only disingenuous towards the elderly, but also to anyone who finds parking apps tricky".

The 72-year-old said: "I tried to park in a town centre car park, but both coin and card options were out of order. As I was late for an appointment and couldn't work out the parking app, I took a chance and left the car there. On my return, I had a fine for £100."

Liz Pritchard, 75, was left "angry and furious" when she was fined after she said she spent 40 minutes trying to find a parking space at Northampton General Hospital.

She paid for an hour's stay but – including the time it took her to find a free bay – was clocked as being in the car park for more than 90 minutes. "When I got the letter with the fine, I was shocked - I should only have to pay for the amount of time that I parked for. I don't feel I should have to pay for the 40 minutes I had to drive around waiting for a space."

Hugh Turner was issued with a parking charge of £100 after a space was pre-booked for him but with the wrong registration number.

The 79-year-old, from Bures, on the Suffolk-Essex border, appealed, but to no avail, despite paying for parking, albeit for a different car. "They reduced the charge to £20, which suggests to me they did recognise the validity of the appeal and the unjustness of their rejection of it. I found the situation very traumatic, distressing and unfair."

Charles Cook, 81, from Clapham, in Bedfordshire, had a similar experience after pre-booking a space in Milton Keynes but parking in the wrong one. "I'd paid for parking; there was no intention of ever not paying, but I made a mistake, and it was an error anyone, of any age, could have made," he said.

"I thought they were being unreasonable in pursuing me. I'm quite happy to go to court over it if it comes to that. I'm not prepared to be bullied into paying."

Kathleen Skilton, 74, from Cambridge, believes older people – like Nice - should be afforded the same level of courtesy and respect as they are in other countries.

"Even elderly people who are fully computer literate are failing to grasp the appalling and badly programmed digital parking permits – it's shocking. Instead of making life easier, they don't work properly, are highly irritating, ridiculously expensive and have to be the most convoluted programmes ever."

Rob Heard MBE, from the Old Drivers Forum, agrees that more should be done to help older people get to grips with technology.

"Nobody should be excluded from everyday life simply because they don't have a smartphone in their pocket," he told the BBC.

"Many older people use smartphones and apps perfectly well, but we shouldn't design essential everyday services on the assumption that everybody [can].

"And that's not really a driving issue, that is an accessibility and inclusion issue."