Beware: The invisible parking ticket

[Mark Gobell]

Motorists in their millions to face fines

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;jsessionid=UZF1UNIBYI2GNQFI QMGCFGGAVCBQUIV0?xml=/news/2007/07/25/nparking125.xml

By David Millward
Last Updated: 2:15am BST 25/07/2007

Millions more motorists could receive parking fines after the Government said that the tickets will no longer have to be fixed to the windscreen.

New regulations will allow fines to be enforced when a motorist has driven away or "used violence" to prevent a ticket being issued.

A parking ticket being fixed to a windscreen, motorists in their millions to face fines
London parking tickets will still have to be either
handed to the driver or fixed to the windscreen

The new regulations are part of a shake-up that will include two-tier parking fines with those guilty of more serious transgressions, such as parking in a disabled bay or on double yellow lines, facing higher penalties.

The changes are designed to plug a loophole identified by the National Parking Adjudication Service, which handles motorists' appeals outside London.

In its annual report, it ruled that tickets had to be properly issued and it disallowed one penalty charge notice after the parking attendant hurled it through the car window of a disappearing motorist. The new rules, which will be enforced in about 180 authorities outside London, will not even require traffic wardens to provide photographic proof that the car was parked illegally. The Department for Transport said the evidence of a parking attendant would be regarded as sufficient and the onus would be on the motorist to prove that he or she was not parked illegally.

Westminster city council said London parking tickets would still have to be either handed to the driver or fixed to the windscreen.

The Department for Transport also confirmed that regulations outlawing laser and speed camera detectors will come into force by early 2008.

[scubadiver]

is my response!