Campaign to fight against rampant ticketing launched

The AA has launched a campaign to fight back against rampant ticketing by council and private parking enforcers, to ensure that first-time offenders in bus lanes and yellow box junctions get a warning letter instead of a fine.

The AA has written to the Secretary of State for Transport in Caught in a Trap asking for government intervention to restore the principle of deterrence in the enforcement of parking and moving traffic offences, instead of the harvesting of fines at every opportunity.

The campaign comes as many councils and private parking operators fear up for a bumper Christmas of PCNs.

Freedom of Information evidence shows that a sample of 50 councils across the country issued nearly 450,000 parking tickets were issued in the summer and hauled in more than £15 million in fines income.

The AA fears that, with the squeeze on parking and people in a rush and held up in queues, the same will occur to thousands of Christmas shoppers who have simply made a mistake.

The most shocking discovery of the Freedom of Information requests was the variation in parking fines income at tourist destinations with similar numbers of visitors. While Eastbourne Borough Council, which has 3.598 million tourist visits a year, issued only 76 PCNs, resulting in £1980 in fines, Edinburgh London Borough Council, with its 4.01 million visits a year, issued a whooping 58,994 PCNs, resulting in fines worth £2,338,050.

The AA says if the argument that parking fines income is ploughed back into local transport and filling in potholes is true, some London and other city councils made so much this year from parking fines that, if this rate of income is maintained throughout the year, their roads should be flawless.

The latest ALARM report, which monitors the condition of local roads, says the average annual carriageway maintenance budget shortfall per London authority is £2.5 million.

In the letter, the AA sets out a list of measures that can be taken to make enforcement of parking and moving traffic regulations fairer and more balanced. These include: sending warning letters rather than penalty notice for first time yellow-box junction offenders and bus lane offenders; councils should publish data of the number of tickets issued by location, monthly; the number of private parking company requests for Vehicle keeper data from DLVA should be reported by location, monthly; and there should be a limit on the number of tickets issued at any single location.

Further measures include: compensating drivers who win their appeals or where councils fail to contest them; accepting and transferring parking tickets that still have time left on them; scrapping CO2-related residents parking permit charges, with permit charges based only on set-up, administration and enforcement costs; and standardising parking signs so that drivers can understand car park rules easily.

Edmund King, president of the AA, said: “What is clear from the FOIs is that some councils enforced their summer car parking with a light touch, while others used a sledgehammer. Here lie the absolute fundamentals of our ‘Caught in a Trap’ campaign: the need to restore the balance between enforcement and deterrence, and the need for targeted fines that direct driver behaviour - not punish every single little mistake because it is a nice little earner for councils and private companies.

“We acknowledge and welcome the fact that some councils are offering Christmas shoppers periods of free parking. However, having raked in millions of pounds in parking fines during the tourist season, we fear many councils and private parking companies will do the same in the run-up to Christmas.

“The AA’s ‘Caught in a Trap’ campaign focuses on the enforcement of moving traffic regulations, such as bus lanes and yellow box junctions, as well as parking. It takes to task the issuing of huge numbers of PCNs, when high percentages are cancelled if challenged. This begs the question why they were issued in the first place?

“We are raising our concerns with the Secretary of State for Transport and asking for government intervention to restore fairness across a wide-range of motoring enforcement issues that plague AA members every day. When a location produces tickets by the hundreds and thousands year in and year out, the cause needs to be understood and rectified - not tapped for every pound a council or private company can get.”