Transport Select Committee wants fairer fines

What Car
19th June 06

• Also wants quotas for parking tickets scrapped
• Improvements to parking rules due next month

Motorists should enjoy lower parking penalties and have more opportunity to appeal against fines under recommendations being proposed by influential MPs this week.
The Transport Select Committee wants to see a two-tier system of parking fines introduced. Motorists only overstaying their allotted time by a few minutes will get smaller fines than those parking on double yellow lines.
Motorists should also be made more aware of their right to appeal against fines - many ticket-issuing authorities hurry drivers into handing over cash by increasing fines if they are not paid promptly.
The committee also wants targets or quotas for the number of tickets issued by parking attendants to be scrapped.

All of the measures are expected to be adopted by ministers in a shake-up of parking regulations due next month.

'Little priority' in government transport strategy

The Transport Select Committee's suggestions follow a year-long investigation. When the committee launched the enquiry last summer, it said the Government gave parking enforcement 'little priority' in its transport strategy.
Chief amongst concerns was how parking penalties have developed since councils were given the opportunity to take over enforcement from the police in the mid-1990s.
Since then, revenue from penalties has more than doubled to £1 billion in 2004, prompting suggestions that enforcement by councils is more about raising cash than keeping traffic flowing as freely as possible.
Any improvement will be welcomed by whatcar.com readers, 95% of whom said parking enforcement was in a mess in a poll taken last summer.
• UK motorists will be pursued for parking penalties and speeding fines incurred on the Continent from spring next year.
Ministers have given the DVLA the green light to pass on driver details to agencies in other European