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racked up 18 tickets and more
No parking outside Selfridges, even if the car’s a Bugatti
This Rolls finds a phantom parking space That’s rich!
Wealthy foreign drivers are racking up millions of pounds in unpaid parking tickets safe in the knowledge that British authorities cannot trace them overseas. Hundreds of motorists from
across Europe, the USA and the Middle East are routinely flouting the rules of the road, which UK motorists have to obey or risk a hefty parking fine. Te problem is particularly bad in expensive parts of central London, where
super-cars such as Ferraris, Bugattis and Lamborghinis can regularly be seen parking on yellow lines, in bus lanes or in residents’ parking bays. Westminster Council said
drivers of foreign-owned cars and motorbikes owed it almost £4m in unpaid fines over the last three years, with more than 80 per cent of overseas drivers refusing to pay for tickets. High-profile offenders
include: l Te owner of a £300,000 Rolls Royce Phantom, who has
RISING MEDIA STAR
The British Parking Association has been establishing itself as the authoritative voice of parking in the UK, following the furore over the clamping ban. Kelvin Reynolds, technical services director, appeared on the Today programme on Radio Four to explain to presenter, Justin Webb why private companies needed regulation. He also spoke to listeners on Radio Wales, LBC Radio and BBC Sussex and Surrey Radio.
This was followed on the same evening by BPA chief
executive, Patrick Troy’s appearance on the One Show on BBC television. Troy shared the BBC sofa with Hollywood legend Whoopi Goldberg and discussed the clamping ban on private land with One Show host Dom Littlewood.
He also made appearances on the ITN News, Channel Five News and ITV Anglia. Norman Baker, transport minister, also had his moment in the parking spotlight when part of his interview with Parking News was quoted in the Daily Mail newspaper. The article picked up on the minister’s comments that motorists should be treated ‘with a softer touch.’ The paper followed-up
Baker’s comments with a case study on a pregnant woman who had received a parking charge notice.
8 SEPTEMBER 2010
than £2,000 in fines; l Te owner of a £1.2 million Bugatti Veyron L’Edition Centenaire – the fastest and most expensive super-car in the world with a top speed of 250mph – who has an outstanding ticket for parking outside a main entrance to Selfridges department store in the heart of the West End
dating back to March; l Te owner of a £50,000 Hummer, registered in America, who owed £4,000 after being issued more than 35 tickets. Te tickets were written off, but the vehicle has since clocked up 10 more tickets with fines of £1,100. Westminster Council is
now calling for a change in legislation that would allow local authorities access to overseas driver and vehicle registration data, and enable them to enforce parking fines. Cabinet member for parking, Cllr Lee Rowley, said all
motorists who break traffic laws should be subject to the same penalties, regardless of their citizenship or where their vehicle is registered. Under current EU legislation,
the UK’s decriminalised driving and parking laws are considered administrative and, therefore, fall outside the scope of both criminal and decriminalised EU legislation and regulations. Tis means that UK local
authorities with decriminalised regimes cannot use UK or EU legal systems to pursue unpaid financial penalties issued to any vehicles registered outside the UK. According to Sparks – a
coalition of London councils established to tackle the problem of penalty dodging by foreign drivers – a total of 330,000 tickets worth £12.9 million are issued to foreign-registered vehicles in London each year for parking and other contraventions.
Standing charge… parking fines in
London are down on last year
LAW ABIDING LONDONERS
The number of penalty charge notices (PCNs) issued in London for parking, bus lane and moving traffic offences has fallen by 11 per cent. New figures from London Councils show that a total of 4,855,073 PCNs were issued by the boroughs and
Transport for London (TfL) between 1 April 2009 and 31 March 2010. This represents a fall of 611,333 from the previous year.
Over the past two years the total number of PCNs has dropped by 22 per cent, down from 6,176,752 in 2007/08.
www.britishparking.co.uk
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