Drivers handed 22,000 parking tickets every day in Britain, costing up to £8.4m
Drivers face regular fines of up to £100 for each penalty, says new research
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Your support makes all the difference.British drivers are being handed more than 22,000 parking tickets by private firms each day, which could cost up to £8.4m, according to new research.
Companies issued more than four million tickets to motorists between April and September 2021, despite cars being used a quarter less at the start of the six-month period compared to pre-pandemic levels, according to government data analysed the PA news agency.
If the rate of tickets issued continues, the total cost of tickets could reach the record high of £8.4m set in 2019-20.
The figures show how may times parking companies obtained records from the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) to pursue car owners for suspected infringements in private car parks such as at shopping centres, leisure facilities and motorway services.
Drivers may face fines of up to £100 for each resulting penalty.
Steve Gooding, director of motoring research charity the RAC Foundation, said: “The sheer volume of tickets being issued is a clear sign that something in the current system isn’t working.
He added: “We believe there are very few drivers who set out to intentionally break the rules.”
Mr Gooding argued this made it unjust for such drivers to find themselves facing a bill of up to £100, “particularly if all they were doing was dropping off some of the myriad parcel deliveries we’ve been ordering this year to an apartment block or industrial estate”.
“Our advice to drivers is never ignore a parking charge notice,” he said. “Read it carefully and, however strongly it’s worded, if it’s wrong, challenge it.
“If there is one sector of the economy which has been resilient during Covid then it is the private parking industry, which continues to attract new players and is on course to issue as many tickets to drivers this year as it did before the pandemic reached these shores.”
Some 163 private parking firms requested car owner records from the DVLA between April and September, with the firm ParkingEye asking for the most records at nearly 900,000.
The DVLA charges firms £2.50 for each record, but says its charges are to cover costs of providing the information and they do not benefit.
New regulations to prevent drivers being mistreated by private parking firms is pending government approval and will include a code of conduct, a single-appeal service and a system of penalties that are more comparable to those imposed by local councils.
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