Taxi Driver Online

Peterborough Evening Telegraph

March 7, 2008

New powers to target parking fine evaders

JUMPING in your car and speeding away before the ticket hits the windscreen will soon not be enough to escape a parking fine in Peterborough.

Because, from the end of the month, drivers may get penalties in the post even if they manage to flee the scene of their offences before parking attendants complete the paperwork and slap it on their vehicles.

And motorists will also face stiffer punishment in some cases, with £70 charges introduced for parking on double yellow lines and other offences regarded as more serious.

Fines currently cost £60, with a 50 per cent discount if paid within 14 days.

The crackdown was today welcomed by the city council's cabinet member for the environment and community safety, Cllr Graham Murphy.

He said: "Parking attendants perform an important role in ensuring that all motorists have an equal opportunity to make use of on-street parking bays and council-owned car parks.

"Some motorists think they can ignore legal parking restrictions with impunity. There have been cases where people who are clearly contravening the rules have driven away before parking attendants can attach a ticket to their windscreen. In other cases, drivers or their passengers have physically prevented attendants from doing their duty."

The parking shake-up comes in across the country from March 31, under the Traffic Management Act.

Besides allowing fines to be delivered through the post, the law is also creating two levels of parking offence.

Under the new two-tier system, £70 tickets will be issued for parking on double yellow lines, in loading bays, residents' and disabled parking areas, taxi ranks and bus stops.

Drivers who stop on zigzags outside schools will also be liable for the raised fine.

Lower penalties of £50 will hit drivers caught overstaying in on-street parking bays, parking without a ticket, and returning to a parking area without observing a designated time interval.

The 50 per cent discount will still apply, with the qualifying period extended from 14 to 21 days for people fined by mail.

The new law also gives local authorities the ability to fine drivers if they are seen flouting parking rules on CCTV.

But the city council said it had no plans to make use of the CCTV powers, at least "initially".

What do you think about the parking fine changes?
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It could be open to abuse by the wardens and could mean extra work for the courts as people dispute the fines if they are sent through the post

THEY WILL GET THE TALIBAN UP THERE.... TO DO IT

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FORUMS ARE A GOOD PLACE TO LET OFF STEAM ! DONT TAKE LIFE TO SERIOUSLY ..

Hmmmm.... are they going to use CCTV to clamp down on taxis parking on the double yellows outside the train station to pick up or drop off passengers ? that could make life very difficult if they do

Already got it in london, cctv catching drivers dropping off on yellow lines, I got one for stopping for 7 seconds!.

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stressed controller!!!