‘Motorist-friendly’ parking penalties

• New framework comes into force on March 31
• Penalties not money-raising schemes
• Wheel-clamping for those who avoid paying fines

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Drivers are set to get a more ‘motorist-friendly’ penalty system for parking offences.

The Department for Transport’s new framework, which will come into force on March 31, says that local councils shouldn’t use parking enforcement as a way to raise money, and they should not set targets for the number of parking tickets to be issued.

Councils will also be told to encourage officers to use more discretion when issuing tickets, and are going to be strongly advised to use wheel-clamping against those only who continually avoid paying their penalty fares.

Independent parking adjudicators will also get more power, like asking councils to reconsider penalty charges in mitigating circumstances.

Transport Minister Rosie Winterton said: ‘The Government has been quite clear that parking enforcement must be fair, clear, consistent and based on robust evidence – we want to increase public confidence in parking.

‘However, there is a perception that motorists are sometimes unfairly penalised. To overcome this, from March 31, we are introducing new powers to make parking enforcement fairer and easier to challenge.’