Parking fines to double under new rules

Parking penalties could double to £100 under new rules being introduced by the private car park industry.

A new code of practice from the British Parking Association and the International Parking Community (IPC) will cap parking penalty charges at double the level previously set by the Government.

Motoring organisations slammed the new self-regulation rules, with one saying officials should intervene to “protect innocent drivers from the sharks running private car parks”.

Coming into force from October, the new parking rules will establish a 10-minute grace period for motorists before they can be hit with penalties for failing to buy a ticket.

Under a legally binding government code of practice briefly issued in 2022, which was withdrawn following an outcry from the private parking industry, penalty charges were originally capped at £50.

While the new voluntary code includes a £100 cap on penalty fees, it does not restrict the amount that private parking companies can charge in debt recovery fees.

Will Hurley, the IPC’s chief executive, said: “This new code will create positive change across the UK, enhancing protection of the most vulnerable in society, whilst creating consistency and clarity for motorists and continuing to elevate standards across the sector.”

‘Lacks truly independent appeals body’

However, motoring organisations were less positive about the new self-regulatory rules than Mr Hurley.

They said the new code lacked a “truly independent” appeals body for challenging parking fines and also highlighted the lack of a cap on debt recovery fees.

Jack Cousens, head of roads policy for the AA, said it was “somewhat ironic” that after the parking industry’s 2022 pushback against the Government’s rules, private parking companies had decided to introduce their own.

“This watered down ‘code of practice’ falls far short of the standards the AA, Government and consumer groups have called for across many years,” Mr Cousens told The Telegraph.

“This self-authored ‘code’ doesn’t acknowledge the need to cap charges and remove debt recovery fees. These elements are desperately needed from a government-backed code to protect innocent drivers from the sharks running private car parks.”

Simon Williams, the RAC’s head of policy, said: “Drivers shouldn’t be fooled into thinking this so-called code developed by the private parking industry itself is the same as the long-delayed official Private Parking Code of Practice that is backed by legislation.”

That legally-binding code was introduced in February 2022 and was withdrawn after just four months following legal threats from some parking companies.

Referring to the withdrawn code, Mr Williams continued: “This, and only this, will bring an end to the worst practices of some private parking operators and will mean drivers, and especially those who are vulnerable, are protected from unreasonable fines and debt collectors chasing down payments.

“We accept that some of the measures being introduced by the parking industry are an improvement on the status quo which, we have long argued, is totally unacceptable,” he added.

“But what operators will now be expected to do falls miles short of what drivers have been promised by the Government, which includes a cap on fines and debt recovery fees, a single independent appeals service, and sanctions against companies that break the rules such as being banned from operating.”

‘Genuine sign’ of change

Steve Gooding, director of the RAC Foundation – the charitable research arm of the motoring organisation – said that the new code was “a genuine sign” that the private parking industry wanted to change its cowboy image.

He said: “Let’s hope that the people who will be ministers in a week or so take this move by the parking trade bodies as a genuine sign of their collective willingness to embrace change and seize on that willingness to press on with the full package of reforms that’s been stalled for the last five years.”

A 2019 law, the Parking (Code of Practice) Act, paved the way for a crackdown on “cowboy parking enforcement companies”, as they were described in Parliament by Tim Loughton MP earlier this year.

The RAC Foundation estimated that 42 million private parking tickets have been handed out in the five years since the act was passed.