Drivers in England are to get 10 minutes’ grace after a parking ticket runs out before they can be hit with a fine.
Under a change in the law to take effect within week, the leeway will apply to all on-street and off-street council parking spots. The move is designed to bring an end to decades of drivers’ complaints about returning to their cars moments after a ticket expires to find they have already been hit with a penalty.
The communities secretary, Eric Pickles, announced the move last year as part of measures intended to get shoppers returning to the high street.
“Slapping people with hefty fines is akin to criminalising shoppers and makes high streets or parades no-go zones for drivers. Over-zealous parking enforcement and unreasonable stealth fines by post undermine the high street,” he said at the time.
Retailers believe that overzealous parking wardens who aim to issue a ticket to drivers the minute their parking time expires deters potential shoppers.
Pickles and the transport secretary, Patrick McLoughlin, said that the war on motorists must come to an end.
“Local residents and businesses will be able to demand a review of parking in their area, including charges and the use of yellow lines. Parking adjudicators will be able to hold councils to account so they can look to change signs and stop charging fines in areas where parking tickets keep being issued,” they said in a joint statement on Thursday.
The measure to give drivers some breathing space is contained in the deregulation bill, which has now passed all stages in the House of Commons and the Lords. Both Houses must agree the final wording of the bill before it can receive royal assent and become law. That is expected to happen within weeks.
Professor Stephen Glaister, director of the RAC Foundation, said: “For such a minor part of our lives parking generates a huge amount of frustration and anger. Allowing a grace period will help ease tensions and make everyone’s lives easier.
“The shame is that we have required ministerial intervention to tackle the ‘rules are rules’ culture which can result in heavy handed and disproportionate penalties. Most drivers probably don’t care how parking regulations are being enforced as long as they thought it was being done fairly.”
Other changes to parking regulations contained in the bill include a ban on the use of CCTV “spy cars” intended to fine drivers for parking on yellow lines. They can still be deployed to catch motorists who illegally park in danger zones such as bus lanes.
Councils will no longer be permitted to profit from parking fines. McLoughlin froze parking penalty charges in December 2013 for the remainder of this parliament.
Drivers forked out an estimated £350m in penalties in 2013-14.
