Councils should aim for a world where no parking tickets are issued by taking a “commonsense” approach to enforcement, ministers have advised.
They should not be trying to make a profit from fines, and authorities should consider giving a verbal warning to a driver who has committed a minor contravention.
Drivers who find a traffic warden writing a ticket when they return to their parked cars should be let off with a verbal warning if they get back to their cars just in time, the guidance issued by transport ministers suggests.
The Government advice is likely to be welcomed by drivers infuriated by wardens refusing to cancel a parking ticket once it is in their machine.
Patrick McLoughlin, the Transport Secretary, told The Daily Telegraph the move was further proof the Tories were taking a “commonsense approach to parking enforcement”.
The advice was contained in guidance issued to councils by the Secretary of State for Transport last month.
“The enforcement authority may wish to set out certain situations when a penalty should not be issued,” the advice says at one point. “For example, an enforcement authority may wish to consider issuing a verbal warning rather than a penalty to a driver who has committed a minor contravention and is still with, or returns to, the vehicle before a penalty notice has been served.”
The advice is intended to push the balance of power back in favour of drivers and away from wardens. Councils were told they should not use fines for “raising revenue” but for “supporting wider transport objectives, in particular keeping traffic moving”. Ministers also noted: “The objective of civil parking enforcement should be for 100 per cent compliance, with no penalty charges.”
Councils were also told to keep fines low, with guidance saying: “Enforcement authorities should adopt the lowest charge level consistent with a high level of public acceptability and compliance.”
Drivers who overstayed their time in a parking bay should also be treated more leniently than those who parked on double yellow lines or in a disabled parking space, councils were told.
Eric Pickles, the local government secretary, said he became “obsessed” with changing Britain’s parking laws after a “dreadful” experience with a traffic warden. He said that as he went to buy a parking ticket “a very nice lady stopped me to ask me a couple of questions”.
He told BBC Radio 4’s The World at One: “I had a ticket in my hand and by the time I actually got back to the car already there was a parking ticket on it. It made me a very bitter person and twisted my mind.”
Mr McLoughlin told The Telegraph: “This Government has ended Labour’s war on the motorist and encouraging local authorities to take a commonsense approach to parking enforcement is part of this.”
The Government has already introduced a mandatory 10-minute “grace period” for expired parking tickets.
