Campaigners have claimed that thousands of drivers in England are being wrongly pursued for parking charges of up to £170 because of faulty ticket machines. Private car parks often require motorists to enter their vehicle registration when buying a ticket, with automatic number recognition (ANPR) cameras matching the payment to the number plate.
According to government data analysed by the RAC Foundation and PA Media, parking companies issue an average of 41,000 parking charge notices (PCNs) every day. Lynda Eagan, who runs a Facebook group offering parking ticket advice with 47,000 followers, said many machines are faulty and continue to generate unjust penalties. "We’ve got unfair PCNs issued to people simply because the machine didn’t work properly," she said. "It’s a totally filthy business. It’s just wrong." She identified "sticky keys" as the most common fault, and claimed some machines are "set up to trap people" by encouraging payment before registration entry.
The transport secretary, Heidi Alexander, called the situation "a problem that needs to be tackled". The RAC has also urged the reintroduction of a government-backed code of conduct for the private parking industry. A bill enabling such a code received royal assent in March 2019, but the resulting code, which would have halved the cap on most parking fines to £50 and introduced a fairer appeals process, was withdrawn three years later after a legal challenge by parking companies.
Simon Williams, the RAC’s head of policy, said: "Some parking companies are wrongly demanding ‘fines’ from drivers who have legitimately paid to park. Whether it’s a faulty payment machine that records the wrong vehicle registration or an innocent mistake keying in their numberplate, these people shouldn’t have to pay the £100 parking charge notices they are sent. Many cases seem completely unjustified and should be thrown out at appeal. But sadly they so often aren’t."
Excel Parking, one of the UK’s largest private parking operators, has faced criticism over a rule that charges drivers £100 if they take longer than five minutes to pay. Earlier this month, a judge dismissed a claim by the company demanding £11,390 in charges from a driver and ordered it to pay thousands in legal costs. Excel also dropped a £1,906 court claim in December against another driver who took more than five minutes to pay.
Hannah Robinson, 21, received hundreds of letters and repeated phone calls demanding payment despite stating she had paid for a ticket each time. She said poor phone signal and problems with the payment app sometimes caused her to exceed the five-minute limit. Excel Parking did not respond to requests for comment about allegations of faulty machines.
