'Danger Ahead For Motorists!'

AppealNow.com founder Barrie Segal warns of hidden minefields in new parking laws

New guidelines announced last week by Department for Transport have come under fire from AppealNow.com's founder Barrie Segal.

The one man crusade against "Crazy Councils, Meter Madness & Traffic Warden Hell" (which incidently is also the title of his recently published book) claims that the new regulations aimed at being more transparent and fairer for the motorist are nothing of the sort.

"Nothing could be further from the truth." he says "Under current legislation, in order for a parking ticket to be valid it must be handed to the person believed to be the driver or put on the vehicle. If it is not, then it is not validly issued and is not enforceable.

"Under current law, a ticket issued by a parking attendant can only be sent by post if the parking attendant was physically prevented from putting the ticket on the vehicle or giving it to the driver. There are very good reasons for this rule. If someone gets a parking ticket they know exactly what they were doing at the time, and if for example they were letting off a passenger or loading goods, they can gather the evidence necessary to prove that."

He continued "In the new legislation the government has sneakily inserted a provision that where a parking attendant has started to write a ticket and the motorist drives away, they can send the ticket by post. The Transport Minister has claimed this is to do with safety, as it will stop motorists driving away to avoid receiving a ticket!

"What is worse is that when a ticket is issued in these circumstances and are sent in the post, motorists will lose their current right to make an informal appeal against the parking ticket. If they appeal to the council and the council turns them down, their next appeal is to the Parking Adjudicator.

"If the motorist never receives the parking ticket because it is lost in the post or mis-addressed the first they will hear of the parking ticket is when they receive a document called a Charge Certificate, increasing the original fine by 50% and threatening that unless payment is made the debt will be registered. The glaring problem with this is that once a Charge Certificate is issued, the motorist can no longer appeal against the parking ticket. They will either have to persuade the council to cancel the Charge Certificate and re-issue the Penalty Charge Notice, or if they do not, then await the registration of the debt at the court and the issue of an Order for Recovery."

Barrie Segal's "The Parking Ticket Awards: Crazy Councils, Meter Madness & Traffic Warden Hell" is available to buy from http://www.appealnow.com/book.html

January 7, 2009