ANPR reference - Coventry Railway Station PDT

MothballsWallet

Just a general question for the regulars: I was in Coventry Railway Station (specifically the 1st floor of "new" extension section) today to collect some tickets I'd purchased online and I noticed this message on the PDT next to the ticket machines:



So, this got me thinking since the car park is Coventry City Council-controlled: is the ANPR here still banned or is it permitted because the car park it relates to is on railway station land that falls under Byelaws?

B789

This is what I could find:

So far as off-street parking is concerned, the Secretary of State for Transport wrote to all English local authorities in September 2014 indicating that the Government opinion was that it was unlawful for local authorities to use CCTV/ANPR in public car parks and informed them that DVLA would not supply information in those circumstances. That remains the Government's position. Some local authorities challenge this position and claim to have legal opinion to the contrary.

However, as this would probably be on land covered by byelaws, this may come under the "criminalised regime" where in car parks where enforcement is undertaken using 1984 Act powers, which pre-dates Civil Parking Enforcement, local authorities may in principle use ANPR or other cameras which they deem suitable for the purposes intended for such cameras.

Such use is subject to the authority's assessment that the use of the camera in the particular circumstances is otherwise lawful; for example, that it would comply with data protection law and individuals' rights to privacy. Depending on the outcome of this assessment, the cameras could then be used to capture evidence used for enforcement of parking contraventions which constitute a criminal offence under the 1984 Act. This purpose will be relevant to the assessment as to whether cameras are appropriate in the circumstances.

If so, they would only be able to issue "Penalty" Charge Notices which would be prosecuted in a Magistrates court but probably still have the 6-month statute of limitation.

B789

I also read this:

In addition, the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 form of 'keeper liability' specifically excludes local authority land managed under the civil and criminalised regimes. It applies only to 'relevant land' which does not include highways maintainable at the public expense, parking provided by a traffic authority (which includes local authorities) and any land on which parking is controlled by statute

MothballsWallet

@B789 Thanks for that - I suppose it would depend on where the car park falls under those conditions.

Would be interesting if someone gets a PPC invoice from this place at some point.

FrankCannon

I've been in council-owned car parks in Whitstable and Rochester where ANPR is used to calculate the tariff when you pay at the end of the parking session. These were not used to issue PCNs or penalties, so the one in Coventry could be similar.

Le_Kirk

I was about to post the same as @FrankCannon as we have several local to me that do exactly what he wrote.