Parking Tickets increase recently has been almost four times, so much so that one in every ten motorists are getting parking tickets. The government is also in talks to increase the amount charged in the parking fines. Are these only done to promote road safety and good traffic management? One tends to doubt it.
A record 3,402,860 parking tickets were issued in 2005 that was 19% higher than that of 2004 and a lot higher than the mere 794,851 number achieved during 2000 – 2001, also the time during which parking regulations became the responsibility of the local councils from the police. People usually believe it to be a mere instrument of the council to earn some extra revenue and not for the road safety aspect as much since it is not ring fenced by the government which would have ensured that the money comes back to the local transport.
If you go by the highest number of parking tickets issued, then Birmingham features at the top with 176,382 tickets after which the four towns of Brighton & Hove, Manchester, Liverpool, and Nottingham follow scoring 160,018, 136,005, 92,642 and 75,350 respectively. Moreover, the body which controls the appeals from motorists is called The National Parking Adjudication Service clearly state that councils should stop playing “fast and loose” with the ticket’s legal restrictions.
When appeal process has been exhausted at the local council level, the NPAs deal with the same.
When the councils are approached by ticket appeal companies, there is a 100% chance it will just pass without finding its way into the NPAS at all. 2006 was a lucky year, 57% appeals won at the NPAS.
At this point mention must be made of the Road Traffic Act which was passed in 1991, since the time of which councils are in the position to enforce “decriminalised parking”, i.e. parking restrictions in their areas and higher fines. This has lead to the increase of fine amount every year coupled with the increase in the devious attitude of the wardens and ruthlessness of the councils. There are also stories of cars with double lines underneath paying parking fines.
It has also happened that traffic wardens have fined motorists who have simply gone to collect change for paying for their tickets. NPAs have thought this as an absolutely unacceptable conduct on moral grounds and have criticized the same.
Thus, a fumbling and indecisive drive would lead to the unlucky motorist stuck behind him to get the parking ticket. One must use common sense and exempt the hapless motorist from this parking fine.
NPAs even talk about councils who expect all motorists to carry the exact change required on them whenever they enter a car park. Hence, in other words motorists can expect a parking ticket under any circumstances.
In these kinds of cases you should always appeal. Do not presume the Council are always right. Many types of Council blindly apply parking regulations and unless challenged through appeals will carry on penalizing the hapless motorist unfairly.
Constant pressure is given on the traffic wardens by the councils to issue as many parking tickets as possible usually leading to ticket issuance that has no legal basis whatsoever. In other words, you can now find enough loopholes to win your appeal easily.
Most of the times, it is the appeal letter drafting that puts off people from appealing in the first place as they have a wrong preconceived notion that these letters are lengthy and complicated. Essentially what you need is just a basic and simple letter which you can easily draft by using all the helpful samples and templates found from countless websites on the web.
Firstly, write the appeal letter in short simple paragraphs in a polite language not including too may technical terms or rude words for that matter. It should be simple and easy to understand for the reader. Your introductory paragraph should state that your were ticketed wrongly and you would like to appeal for the same while your following paragraphs should state your reasons for it.
What you can say as reasons can be that your car was stolen, it suffered a breakdown, you hadn’t been driving during that time or there was not enough signage in that area telling you about the parking regulations. Remember, that photographic evidence is a sure way to win any appeal in such cases.
Get more information from http://www.cancelmyticket.co.uk. Find out about cancelling all UK Parking Tickets. Find out about appealing Parking Charges from this site.
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