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Car parking problems


Car parking comes in exactly two categories of perspective:

  • The point of view of the motorist
  • The point of view of the landowner

These two are usually completely watertight from each other are also usually oppositional.

First, we are considering the first viewpoint. What does the motorist want? He wants convenient, safe and easy parking.

As many road transportation specialists declare, all road vehicle trips end and start in parking. That rule applies to the flights of aircraft and trains too.

To the end that car parking problems from the point of view of the motorist are not much more or less than the usage of and/or the search for convenient, safe and easy parking the matter is readily understandable.

The motorist wants somewhere close to his final destination, usually a building of some description. The motorist wants a place to park that is physically safe for his car (or whatever) and concurrently safe for himself/herself. In other words, the registered owner of the vehicle dreads a notification that to him/her that a charge or fine is due for wrong parking. The motorist wants to park where it is easy to go to the final destination, usually a building. The motorist does not want to park somewhere where he/she has to walk up and down a steep hill, for example.

Secondly, we consider the point of view of the landowner. What does the landowner want? He/she wants his precious property to be recognised as his/her private property with control backed by the law over who has the right to make use of it and with conditions decided by the landowner. The landowner wants his property to be safe insofar that its value must be maintained and, if possible, increased. To take an extreme example, the landowner dreads third parties coming over and dumping rubbish on his land. A certain wood in North London had been used by certain local parties for dumping household waste during the 1960s and no doubt that must have taken decades to decompose. That is unacceptable from the landowner"s point of view, in this case a local authority. The landowner wants his property to be safe. If somebody parks without permission and the vehicle leaks fuel and oil that creates all manner of environmental hazards. The rule applies even more to radioactive waste.

Car parking problems tend to be the domain of firms and highly specialised transportation professionals of firms that dedicate themselves to serving the landowner.

In the United Kingdom protecting owners" rights over land is a subject divided into exactly two categories:

  • Government central and local
  • Private individual and corporate

Time and experience shows that from time immemorial governments and rulers of the nation are awesomely good at protecting their own. In the matter of parking the penalty for wrong parking is the Penalty Charge Notice about which, if the facts are correct, the motorist can do little except pay up.

In that country, the private landowner (individual and corporate) cannot give out Penalty Charge Notices. He may, within the law, use firms that are authorised by the State to discover from the government (specifically the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority) details of the registered vehicle keepers and bill the same with Parking Charge Notices.

These two types of PCNs and different and carry different consequences in the event of non-payment.

The law in this area is presently fluid with firms having State permission to deliver Parking Charge Notices within the law but hamstrung over what to do about non-payment.

Section 54 of the vastly important Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 is most probably a half-way position from the pre-1 October, 2012 situation that allowed clamping and towing away by private entities (non-government) and whatever comes next with the question of what to do about non-payment for wrong parking on private land sorted out.

Car parking problems are going through a time of change with powerful interests in conflict. The future development of car parking problems is going to be interesting.