May 4, 2008

Covered up by the ongoing bad news of the credit crunch and 10p tax fiascos, the government has expanded it’s campaign of harassment of motorists, by introducing a new, and more complicated system of parking tickets. Most people won’t be aware of these new regulations, they haven’t been able to get much headline time. But many motorists are likely to fall foul of them. According to the AA the both the number of fines and their costs are likely to rise.

The local government association claim that these measures are being implemented in order to “improve traffic flows and make the roads safer for everybody”. The new measures will see a two tier system of fine, with a lesser charge for minor misdemeanours such as overstaying at a parking metre and bigger charges for parking on double yellow lines.

One of the most controversial steps to be implemented is to allow wardens to fine people without issuing a ticket. In order to stop people being able to get back to their car and leave before the ticket is issued, wardens will be able to fine drivers based on a photograph of the alleged offence.

Rosie Winterton The Transport Minister say's this is was a vital step as "some people see a Warden and quickly drive off and it was a danger to other vehicles and pedestrians, so we will allow Wardens to issue tickets even if somebody is in the process of driving away"!

There are even proposals to use CCTV evidence to enforce parking fines. This is going to be used where it’s not suitable, or “too dangerous for attendants to issue fines such as along high speed roads or along a red route where stopping would create further traffic problems”

Councillor David Sparks, Transport spokesman for the Local Government Association adds “Every councillor in the country will have had people complaining about cars parking illegally while at the some time expressing unhappiness about parking charges”.

It seems like the Local Government Association have used this as an excuse to push some even more draconian laws through and further extort money from drivers. Watch out because now you don’t even have to be caught parking in the wrong place to be issued with a fine!

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