BPA ACTIVITIES MONTHLY ROUND-UP
As the parking profession continues to make all the wrong headlines, Kelvin Reynolds goes on the offensive
Common sense ok
RULES… N
With more than 30 million cars on the road and 29 million of them parked at any one time, to not manage it would be ludicrous
ot a week goes by without an investigation, an exposé or a major political statement about the unfairness of parking management. It’s all part of this so-called ‘war on motorists’ isn’t it? Well I think it should be referred to as the ‘war on the non-compliant motorist’, because I suggest that if you don’t park where you shouldn’t and pay when you should you will never get a parking ticket! Last month it was the BBC with their
Parking Mad documentary, which I wrote about in the February edition. More recently Inside Out has been investigating local authority parking management and the press has been running stories about misuse of ‘parking profi ts and how councils use increased parking fees to make up losses elsewhere. And now Parliament’s Transport Select Committee is enquiring into parking. The BPA has, unsurprisingly, written to
the Transport Select Committee requesting to give evidence on behalf of the parking profession. It is important we use this opportunity to explain to parliamentarians, MPs and government, what it’s really like to be managing parking on the ‘front-line’, and why the management of parking is so important to the UK economy. Let’s face it, with more than 30 million cars on the road and 29 million of them parked at any one time, to not manage it would be ludicrous.
An essential service Proper and effective parking management is absolutely essential in our crowded island, without it the economic activity of ‘UK plc’ would be severely compromised as our high streets became even more congested. Almost everyone would be
16 MARCH 2013
www.britishparking.co.uk
affected and many people could not go about their daily lives; strange, then, that parking enforcement is seen in such bad light. Why is this? Probably because no one has any real experience of what it’s like without it and therefore doesn’t understand its benefi ts!
Cast your mind back to March 2008 in Aspects of TMA. The then minister Rosie Winterton said: ‘On the 31 March 2008, new parking rules come into force across England and Wales in places where the local authority has taken over from the police service the responsibility for enforcing parking regulations. The changes can be summed up in two words –‘Clearer’ and ‘Fairer’. ‘The new framework – set out in the regulations, the statutory guidance and the operational guidance – gives local authorities all the tools they need to deliver a fi rmer, clearer and fairer parking system across the country.’
MICHAL KOWALSKI / SHUTTERSTOCK
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