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Getting the Story Across
Has parking enforcement become fairer? If you asked the average motorist this question today, he would probably say ‘no’. Nearly four million Penalty Charge Notices were issued 2007/08 in England alone, compared to around a fifth of this number in 2000/2001. So it isn’t really surprising that motorists often feel parking fines are just used as a revenue-making exercise by greedy local councils. (Of course there is never a mention that the number of councils enforcing has significantly increased in that time).
In the national newspapers – including the most serious titles – negative coverage abounds. One statistic mentioned only infrequently by the media, however, is the success rate for appeals to the Parking Adjudicator . This has stayed fairly constant over the same period, though there are signs that local authorities are now contesting slightly more appeals than before.
The launch of Parking Review in 1989 took place at the height of the debate on whether out of town retail development was squeezing the life blood out of town centres and coincided pretty much with the end of central and local government policy of ‘predict and provide’.
The number of private cars on Britain’s roads has increased by almost 50% in the past 20 years. Since this represents an average density of more than 300 cars per square mile, it isn’t difficult to identify the root of the problem.
Getting the public on our side means appealing more strongly to the British sense of fair play. Alongside the hysterical rants of some tabloid journalists there are several examples of articles which attempt to address perfectly legitimate concerns. As an industry we need to keep the dialogue going. …
The full article can be found in Parking Review published December 2009 or online at Parking Review.
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