On Friday Eric Pickles MP announced a series of measures to protect motorists. They were:
A 10 minute grace period for drivers when parked in a council-owned car park or on-street parking space – so they’re not hit with a fine after being only a few minutes late back to their car.
· Banning the industrial use of CCTV ‘spy cars’ which issue automated fines.
· Stopping drivers being fined when parking meters are not working.
· Reinforcing the law that parking cannot be used by councils to generate revenue to use to fund general council spending.
· Allowing local residents and businesses to petition their council to review their parking policies to make sure they are supporting local businesses and high streets.
Speaking after the proposals were announced David Morris MP said:
‘I welcome the Governments announcements to help shoppers and businesses, we have all had times when we have overstayed by 5 minutes on our parking and got tickets and it’s about time that this practice has to stop. Lancaster City Council had a surplus from parking of £1,613,000 in 2013/14, so it is long overdue that the council should not be able to profit from people parking their cars’
‘I would like to see this go further and would like to see the Government introduce a parking pass so that people who are loading and offloading in a work van can do so without fear of getting a ticket’