We Pay Your Parking Fines!
Over half of all appeals against parking fines are successful. Even better, this new website pays your fine for you...
First things first: I've never owned a car and I last drove a (company) car way back in 1999. Thus, I only experience the frustrations of modern-day motorists second-hand, via my wife. Then again, I fully understand how trying life is for British drivers, with soaring fuel prices and poor traffic conditions piling on the pressure.
Then again, perhaps the thing most likely to infuriate drivers is a parking ticket. In 2005 alone, around eight million parking fines were issued, which comes to one for every three households in the UK. In fact, councils make around £400 million each year from parking tickets, so they are reluctant to lose any of this income. Hence, the lure of cash often wins over common sense!
Take, for example, my neighbour's elderly mother, who inadvertently scratched off the wrong silver panel on a parking permit. Later that day, an entirely unsympathetic parking warden refused to recognise that she'd made an honest mistake, and handed her a £40 fine. I was outraged at this officious approach and offered to help her contest this unfair decision.
Indeed, according a new report from the consumer champions at Which? magazine, it's well worth appealing against unfair parking fines. (We're talking genuine mistakes here, not people trying their luck just for the sake of it.) Although your complaint may be rejected when you first challenge a parking fine, it's remarkable just how many fines are cancelled on appeal.
Which? discovered that, in England & Wales, there were 9,449 formal appeals against parking fines in 2005. Of these, 5,341 (57%) appeals were won by drivers. What's more, 2,749 successful appeals were uncontested, which means that a council or private parking firm didn't even bother to submit a defence. No evidence means that there's no case to answer, so drivers win hands down.
It's worth noting the success rate for appeals varies from council to council. In Scotland in 2006/07, seven in ten appeals were successful (70%), of which almost four-fifths were uncontested. In 2005, more than three in five appeals in the London boroughs of Hackney, Hillingdon and Southwark were uncontested. On the other hand, Stockport Council tries to resolve challenges in-house and had no formal appeals against 23,000 tickets handed out.
Highway Robbery
So, if you fall victim to `highway robbery', then don't just give in and pay up. Instead, challenge the fine and, if this fails, then go on to appeal. Based on past results, your chance of succeeding is far better than 50/50. If you need a little extra help with your case, then try the Appeal Now website, which provides specialist help to motorists with parking fines. Its online service costs £7.99 and takes under five minutes to lodge an appeal.
Lastly, wouldn't it be nice if your fairy godmother made your parking tickets vanish with a wave of her wand? Alas, this is the real world, so I can't offer you a guardian angel. However, I can point you in the direction of a brand-new website called Majicari.
Majicari was set up by Matt Richardson, a resident of West London, after he received a parking ticket while doing a good deed at his children's school. Matt set up Majicari to champion the rights of motorists who have received unfair parking fines. Even better, Majicari collects tales of parking woe and allows users to vote for the most deserving cases. These lucky winners will have their parking fines reimbursed in full by Majicari, its sponsors and advertisers.
Now that should cheer up millions of miserable motorists!
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