Parliamentary committee condemns parking

The House of Commons Transport Committee has condemned the current state of the UK’s parking legislation and enforcement.

In a report issued today (Thursday 22 June), entitled Parking Policy and Enforcement, the Committee said that the current local control of parking was both confusing and unfair for motorists. The report was especially damning of the lack of a clear, national policy on parking enforcement: “It is high time to move to a single country-wide system of decriminalised parking enforcement… serious flaws remain in the decriminalised parking system,” said the report.

“For example, 20 percent of the 7.1 million Penalty Charge Notices issued in England in 2003 were cancelled… Poor local authority administration causes frustration and anger, wastes resources, and brings the decriminalised parking regime into disrepute. Scrutiny of local authority parking departments is woefully inadequate and needs to be strengthened.”

The Transport Committee is an appointed body within the House of Commons, and the Government is required to respond to its report within two months of publication. It is not required to adopt the recommendations within the report, but it is expected to explain why it will not do so.

This could be a small glimmer of hope for the UK’s beleaguered motorists.

Read the full report here.