Since the days of abolishing criminal acts on motorists and drivers in 1990s parking control powers have been allotted to the local councils away from the police. Since then there has been a sharp increase in the issuing of parking tickets and more people appealing against them.
People claim that the reason for issuing these and increasing public demand is because these local authorities are collecting the parking fines illegally and without any evidence of wrong parking. This theory that a parking ticket could save him from getting charged with illegal fines led to year on year increase in parking ticket issues.
Moreover, parking fine amounts have also shot up recently giving us all the more reason to appeal a parking ticket.
It is a good idea to contest a parking ticket if the motorist or the driver feels he has been unfairly issued with the parking fine by revenue collecting officials. This appeal for parking ticket is very easy and around 50% of these appeals are granted quite easily. The council dont even bother to appear while these appeals are being considered.
If however nobody was given parking ticket then there would be chaos and confusion in the high street. Local council would have smaller budgets and hence the council tax would have to double to pay for services.
This is the basis of issuing parking tickets to more and more motorists – to increase transport revenues. However traffic wardens are actually encouraged to hand out as many parking tickets as they can regardless of whether or not the motorist is actually breaking the law.
A motorist should always look out for street signs or road markings before parking in a public car park or on a public road. Especially if he is unsure about the place, it is better not to park there than risk being charged a heft parking ticket amount and the subsequent effort for appealing for it.
Writing a simple and basic letter to the local council is all there is to appealing a parking ticket, which is otherwise thought to be a hard task. Infact, so much so, that 90% of all drivers go ahead by paying the fine instead of appealing.
So is it really too much hard work to write a simple email or even a letter to save yourself 30-120 pounds? Of course not. The problem is that many people feel this letter or email writing to be too difficult to attempt. There are however online companies who will do all the work for you. Some even provide you with a template letter or even make the appeal for you.
Now to ensure you are successful you will need some kind of evidence. You could for example have photographs showing that there were no signs at the place where you parked; or that there was a sign which shows you were parking legally. In this way with near two thirds of parking tickets being distributed illegally there stands a big chance for you!
If you are going via the technicality way instead, try to focus on things that have been provided in the ticket itself. Hence, supposing you have got a ticket saying you parked wrongly at Smith Road and in reality you were in Smith Street, you might argue that the contravention never happened and thereby win your appeal.
Another relatively new concept is that of the private parking ticket which looks identical to and is even issued in a similar way to what a traffic warden generally gives you. It usually asks you to pay a certain amount of fine within so and so date along with a slight threat.
It can be safely said that private parking tickets are more of an invoice than an actual parking ticket as they do not have any real legal base. Even if one writes to them for appealing, it will always be turned down. Thus, these are mere empty threats which should be dismissed.
To make this point clear, one example is company called Euro car parks where there has been never an instance of any drivers being taken to court for not paying their parking fines.
Infact, they need to prove a couple of things if they at all take you to court. First being that you need to be shown as their registered keeper for being a party to their contract (entering the parking means entering their contract) and secondly that you were actually driving at that point of time. Even if they can successfully pull of these coups, they will only be entitled to 2 pounds for an hours extra parking.
So to conclude things, never pay a parking ticket fine from a private company even if you receive 3 or 4 threatening letters. Ignore them or tell them you are going to get a court order against them for harassment.
As for other parking ticket appeals, please visit the website below for more help and technical advice.