REVIVING THE PRIVATE PARKING BILL

Humdinger1

Protest said:

Humdinger1 said: ....Committees such as the one @Coupon-mad is on are set up by the Whips Office, not MPs........

I'm confused. A Whips Office would surely be party-centric. For a Committee to be effective in advising on this issue it would need to be cross-party and set up by the Parliamentary Committee (which ceased with the election and is only just finding its feet again under new direction), or the Ministry, or some similar "neutral" sponsor.

Protest you may have a point here but that's the way the system is set up and things are now at least moving.  You can of course try challenging it but if you add that to your work on changing the parking landscape, you'll be working round the clock 365 days per year for the foreseeable.   @Coupon-mad will keep us posted.  Good luck 

Coupon-mad

Protest said:

Humdinger1 said: ....Committees such as the one @Coupon-mad is on are set up by the Whips Office, not MPs........

I'm confused. A Whips Office would surely be party-centric. For a Committee to be effective in advising on this issue it would need to be cross-party and set up by the Parliamentary Committee (which ceased with the election and is only just finding its feet again under new direction), or the Ministry, or some similar "neutral" sponsor.

The Steering Group was set up by the BSI.  Very much a neutral 'sponsor' (paid to herd us cats). That's why in the first few years the Code was going to be a 'PAS' (BSI term).  Then we all saw it wasn't going to work as a PAS due to the narrow structure, and the BSI stepped away but we were retained.

The work continues.

Protest

The group of MPs currently pressing Govt for action:

 

They are energetic but how many are 2024 newbies? If your MP is one of these, perhaps you should write to them!

Protest

Meanwhile, in the other place...

https://hansard.parliament.uk/lords/2025-02-04/debates/BF0158B6-19BE-4440-A03F-AC1AD7B8FEA8/CarParkingCompanies

I see at least one Lady politician has tried to avoid the usual ASAP or "in due course" nonsense - but then she reverts to type afterwards! And it seems the Govt has kicked for touch with yet another "consultation", trying to cover the Departmental mess made in 2022 and, it seems, ongoing thereafter.

Does nobody care about the sheer waste and incompetence on display here? Or about the daily harm being done visibly by a private parking industry that is making a mockery of Parliament, the Courts and motorists across this country? Hansard has debates going back to 1990 on this topic - is this endless debate one of Reeves' growth industries.....or a pointer to an area where administrative efficiencies might quickly and beneficially be found - if anybody cared to look and act? Maybe the Parliamentary Ombudsman might be alerted to this quagmire in need of purging.

Protest

THEN

14 September 2023

Question for Short Debate (House of Lords)

Asked by Lord Lipsey

To ask His Majesty’s Government what plans they have to reintroduce the Private Parking Code of Practice for private parking operators that was withdrawn in June 2022.

Baroness Taylor of Stevenage  (Lab)     [in opposition]

My Lords, I thank my noble friend Lord Lipsey for a very timely debate—which reminds us that this important issue is still outstanding business……….. As a council leader until very recently, I am afraid that parking is one of the subjects guaranteed to make my blood run cold ……... far from the Code being reintroduced in July 2023, the call for evidence was issued only on 30 July—a year after the code had been withdrawn—with a closure date of 8 October, and that needs to be followed by the impact assessment. What is the reason for a delay of a whole year? ………..Can the Minister reassure motorists that the Government still intend to deal with all issues arising from the previous practices of private parking companies by the use of a strong code of practice combined with enforceable measures on those companies which do not comply?……….. How quickly do the Government expect to be able to carry out the impact assessment after the call for evidence closes? I suppose the key question here is: just when do we expect to be able to reintroduce this important code of practice? ……….. Please can we get this code back in place as quickly as possible to ensure that private parking is fair and transparent to motorists? ”

NOW

4 Feb 2025

Asked by Lord Spellar

To ask His Majesty’s Government what plans they have to regulate car parking companies with regard to the charges that they can impose on motorists.

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government 

(Baroness Taylor of Stevenage) (Lab)    [now in Government]

My Lords, we understand the frustrations and complexities that motorists face in dealing with private parking, so we are exploring all possible ways to give motorists the best protection and support. We want to strike a balance between ensuring that parking charges and debt recovery fees are at a reasonable level and allowing parking operators to manage car parks effectively. We are planning to launch a consultation—I am not going to say “in due course”—during this year, which will include options for capping charges and debt recovery fees............. We are going out to consultation again, to make sure that we do the consultation properly and thoroughly. We will bring forward a further code of practice in due course, once that consultation has been done properly.

Overall what the minister said was that consultation would start in-year and a draft Code would appear in due course. 

Next year? For more consultation? For implementation the year after that ….. and so ad infinitum?

Perhaps we'd move faster if Govt ended its collusion with this industry and capped or closed DVLA access, given the abject failure of self-regulation, the everyday abuse of the legal process and the continued hostility of the industry towards a statutory Code.

Protest

Govt effort to improve parking. Not quite 100% yet after 5 years of development effort (sound familiar??)

And so today

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2025/feb/22/uk-wide-parking-app-out-of-road-government-funding-withdrawn

Pull back; leave it to the industry. (sound familiar??)

The detail seems a bit odd - developed by DfT but with local councils as the primary customer, and they are under the oversight of MHCLG. Feels unfortunately like a project where excellence has been the enemy of the good.

Coupon-mad

Hmmm... that is concerning about the NPP.

daveyjp

Why does Government need to create their own app?  Reminds me of the Covid situation where industry were sidelined.

Government just needs to prepare a UK wide app specification and let the industry submit their proposals.

Coupon-mad

daveyjp said:

Why does Government need to create their own app?  Reminds me of the Covid situation where industry were sidelined.

Government just needs to prepare a UK wide app specification and let the industry submit their proposals.

My concern is that going back to a hands-off approach worries me if the Labour MHCLG do the same for the parking Code or other parts of the 'regulatory' regime.

I'm a bit concerned by a general move by this Government to quash regulation and encourage 'growth'.  If that's the stance they take to everything (and include parking) then we are in trouble.

Keep up the pressure on MPs!

Protest

When Govt intervene in an industry setting it too often starts with the best of intentions and ends up in the mire, frequently with overspend and confusion evident. 

However Industry was encouraged to develop smart meters. The result is an ongoing embarrassment in just about every way.

"A spokesman from Energy Networks Association said: “We respect the Government’s decision to appoint energy suppliers to lead the rollout of smart meters."  

"Labour made the unusual move in 2009 to entrust the rollout of smart meters to energy suppliers.......Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC)  to ensure all households had a smart meter installed by 2020, a target which has since been watered down several times. Labour had argued at the time that suppliers were thought to bring innovation, especially through customer relationships. But Professor Helm said the rollout had instead been “haphazard, patchy and high-cost”. He added that costs passed on to consumers had been higher than they would have been."

from   https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/net-zero/ed-miliband-blame-britain-disastrous-smart-meters/

NPP does look like it's app is working but they forgot to figure out how it would be paid for. It probably now needs to be sold to (or be led by) a commercial partner.