Parking Code of Practice Consultation 2025 - now let's see what happens

Umkomaas

👆👆 Great stuff @Coupon-mad. 

Going through the Consultation notes and starting to get my own thoughts together, unless one is familiar with all the issues and nuances, I do wonder how the average motorist who's been hit by the PPC juggernaut, can understand, let alone respond at the level at which the MHCLG seem to want. 

And God help the ex-clamping knuckle-draggers of PPC world .... unless they're going to be given a 'copy and paste' that they can (once again) dump into the response portal .... spelling and grammatical errors included!

LoneStarState

Coupon-mad said:

2. the unspoken issue (but here is where to raise it) is that the too short discount period of 14 days should be made longer NOW, in this first Code. 14 days is an error that has been allowed to run in the industry for years and years, because there's nothing in it for the PPCs to have changed it to fairly match the '21 days discount from service' of a Local Authority PCN.

This is a 'win-win' idea for industry and consumers: council rules offer 21 days at the discount from delivery of the PCN by post. To copy the industry's windscreen-PCN hangover '14 days' shuts many people out who would have paid. It's unfair and an oversight for the trade bodies not to have provided a proper time for people to pay the lower sum upon learning about a postal PCN, which can be weeks later if people are away or the post takes ages to arrive or be opened.

If the MHCLG wants to weed out spurious PCNs and eventually only see reasonable and fair PCNs issued on private land, why would they not want to encourage people to have a fair time to pay on receipt of a PCN by post, as happens with councils? The Parking (Code of Practice) Act 2019 requires a government code that 'promotes good practice'. This is a good practice suggestion which is cost-neutral. In fact, PPCs stand to gain from more people paying and they can't chase a PCN in the first 28 days anyway, so there's no extra work or loss by allowing the discount for '21 days from service'. The ZatPark (PCN processing software) system can accommodate this easily because someone asked them this very question at the Parkex industry conference and ParkingEye already have a flexible 'extend the discount & pay' button on their website, I hear.

I am also of the belief this should be extended and matched to the LA PCN discount timeline. 

Too often people seem to magically receive a PCN in the post several days after an alleged "date of posting" that is received within POFA timelines but significantly shrinks the discount window so that the 14 day discount window is reduced to a less than 10 days.  Now I'll admit some of this could be due to substandard postal service but every time I've posted something (and I still post letters a fair bit) they seem to be delivered in time or very close to the timelines for the respective Royal Mail delivery targets, not several days after as some NTKs seem to be received.

It should be mandated that the discount window is 21 days from the date of service (not date of the notice as is currently used) of the PCN  That effectively gives a motorist 23 days minimum (more if there are interceding Sundays/bank holidays between the issue date and presumed service date) to pay from the date of the notice at the discount rate and minimises any possible tactic by operators to excessively artificially shrink the discount window by delaying postage.  If there is any artificial delay, a motorist will still have ample time and operators risk not being POFA compliant.  And as you've said, no work is done by the PPC in that first 28 days anyways.

Nellymoser

Raised this too. There's no 14 day period for motorists. PCN envelope would need to be date stamped for the 14 day period to be accurately worked out. PCN issue date is not the posting date. Either extend this 14 day period or operators mail server date stamps the envelopes.

patient_dream

Do people really think that government will get this right ??
Time in government has been a disaster damaging 1000's of people and business already. Do they actually understand the great parking scam ?

Castle

Nellymoser said:

Raised this too. There's no 14 day period for motorists. PCN envelope would need to be date stamped for the 14 day period to be accurately worked out. PCN issue date is not the posting date. Either extend this 14 day period or operators mail server date stamps the envelopes.

Correct, because "Date of issue" doesn't appear in POFA Schedule 4;, it has simply been made up.

AndrewS1973

What really irks me is that car park operators seem to have more powers than the police, who appear unable to take action against even known shoplifters. I think this whole idea that you have agreed to be part of some contract just because of where you've parked your car is crazy.

grassmarket

It’s easy! A simple email response to the Consultation is all you need to make your views known. Absolutely no need to do the full-blown version.

Just pick out the questions you want to answer on the PDF version below, & email your response to parking@communities.gov.uk. 
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/686be7d9a08d3a3ca3b67845/private-parking-consultation-questions.pdf

Appreciate all the time & care taken by the parking community here. But few people have the time to devote to such an esoteric Consultation. 

Let’s encourage as many ordinary motorists as possible to respond by the 5th September deadline - otherwise our voices won’t be heard.
Use the email shortcut above & drown out the self-interested clamour from the private parking mafia! 

grassmarket

patient_dream said:

Do people really think that government will get this right ??
Time in government has been a disaster damaging 1000's of people and business already. Do they actually understand the great parking scam ?

Agree - they don’t understand & doubt they'll get it right either. But we’ve got to try. 

I spent ages doing the last consultation in 2019: But Govt capitulated at the first signs of a legal challenge from the Private Parking Mafia - oops ‘Industry’. 

grassmarket

Question: how much do Private Parking operators actually have to PAY the DVLA to get Keeper addresses? And with the huge explosion in Keeper requests - what other important DVLA work is not getting done? 

Coupon-mad

We all know this (£2.50) and it's not related to the Consultation questions.

Please can we stay on topic.