Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Parking Charge Notices 3

Hopefully my final point on this to consolidate some of the [updates] on other entries. Under the Traffic Management Act 2004 Wyre Forest District Council is using Civil Parking Enforcement Regulations. That means a large chunk of dealing with parking is removed from the purview of the police and placed in the hands of the council.

That means it's the District Council putting tickets on your windscreen and taking you to court for failure to abide by their rules. Except what rules are those? I've dealt with the notices in car-parks and of course signs are put up on single yellow lines about parking restrictions, but if you look at the page detailing a whole load more; and the best bit is the last line

This list is not inclusive.
That means there may be more that they're not telling you about, which means they can give you a notice for an action you had no way in knowing was prohibited; good huh?

There's also something that needs to be pointed out is that this is a civil matter and not a criminal one it is therefore not 'illegal' to break these rules it is merely 'actionable' - you cannot be arrested, you cannot be charged, you cannot be imprisoned. Essentially the council are allowing you to park there provided you follow their rules and they're contending that you haven't. However PCNs are enforceable under statute law unlike those issued by private firms.

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