Money central: Ten craziest parking tickets of all time

Drivers will be given the benefit of the doubt in disputes over parking tickets that arrive by post, The Times has learnt.

Caroline Sheppard, the chief adjudicator of the new traffic penalties coming into force tomorrow, intends the move to be seen as a tilt towards motorists in their continuing battle with local authorities over parking.

As part of this shift, drivers will also be given new rights to appeal against parking tickets.

Ms Sheppard said that she was determined to ensure that councils could not ride roughshod over the rights of car drivers. She said that motorists would also be able to have their appeals heard by telephone instead of attending a hearing, in a move designed to encourage more drivers to challenge their tickets. The eight million drivers who receive parking tickets each year needed to be aware of their rights to challenge “unfair” penalties, she said.

More than 60 per cent of appeals are successful but many drivers do not realise that they have the right to have their case decided by an independent adjudicator.

Ms Sheppard, chief adjudicator of the new Traffic Penalty Tribunal, said that many motorists were understandably concerned about councils’ new powers, coming into force today, to issue tickets by post.She said that drivers might not receive the ticket until two weeks after the alleged offence was committed and might have lost the opportunity to gather evidence with which to defend themselves.

The new law is designed to allow parking wardens, which are being renamed civil enforcement officers, to issue tickets which they had not finished writing before the motorist drove off. But motoring groups fear that councils will use the power to raise extra revenue. They already receive more than £1 billion a year in parking penalties and fees.

Ms Sheppard said: “What the public fear is that the warden will be a long way off and will merely jot down their registration number. But the adjudicator will require councils to have a very high standard of evidence.”

She said that wardens would be expected to have a photograph of the tax disc or the disc number to prove that they had not been hiding up the street. They would also be required to give a description of the driver to prove that they were close to the vehicle.

Drivers receiving tickets by post will also not be expected to have kept evidence that they were legally parked, such as pay and display tickets or a shop receipt to show they were loading.

“When balancing up the weight of evidence, the adjudicator will give due account to the fact that the motorist only heard of the penalty some time after the incident and therefore may not have had the opportunity to preserve the evidence. “Drivers’ own explanation of what happened will carry a lot of weight.”

From today councils across England will also gain the right to use CCTV to detect offences on roads where parking is banned. Councils in London already have this power.

Ms Sheppard said that trials of telephone appeals had shown they were very popular with drivers, who could fit them in during lunch breaks or take part from home.

The driver dials in to a conference call which includes the adjudicator, a council parking official and any witnesses for the driver.

The tribunal will accept photographs and videos taken by drivers, who can also elect for appeals to be held in their home towns if they want to appear in person. Ms Sheppard said: “If you get a ticket in Brighton but live in London, we can arrange for the hearing to take place in London.” An online appeals service will be launched later this year. Adjudicators gain extra powers from today to allow an appeal if the council has not followed the correct procedure and can also refer a case back to the council if it “has not taken proper account of compelling reasons”.

Councillor David Sparks, transport spokesman for the Local Government Association, said: “Everyone hates congestion and delays to their journey and the new regulations will help councils deliver more effective parking management to improve traffic flow and make the roads safer for everybody. The introduction of postal penalty notices will allow local authorities to clamp down on the minority of unscrupulous motorists who flout parking regulations by driving off while a notice is being issued.”

More than 200 councils have funded a new website, www.patrol-uk.info, which explains parking rules and the enforcement process and advises drivers on how to challenge a ticket. The Traffic Penalty Tribunal has made a series of online videos that illustrate ways of appealing against fines.

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