Drivers across England are getting slapped with private parking fines of up to £170, all because the machines meant to log your reg plate aren’t working properly.
People in multiple areas say they were hit with unfair parking charge notices (PCNs) — and according to campaigners, this could be affecting thousands of drivers.
Even the Transport Secretary, Heidi Alexander, has weighed in, calling it a problem that “needs to be tackled.” The RAC wants the Government to bring back a code of conduct to crack down on dodgy private parking practices.
What’s Actually Going Wrong?
In many car parks, you have to punch in your registration number when you buy a ticket. That info should stop you from getting fined when ANPR (Automatic Number Plate Recognition) cameras scan your car.
But a new investigation by PA Media has found tons of cases where people did enter their plate correctly — or at least they thought they did — but were still sent a PCN.
Worse? When they tried to appeal and sent in photos of their tickets showing the reg was either wrong or partially printed, their appeals got rejected.
From Somerset to West Yorkshire, similar stories are popping up. Campaigner Lynda Eagan has been tracking the issue for years and runs a Facebook group with 47,000 members helping people fight dodgy tickets.
She says most of the issues come down to either:
- “Sticky keys” – buttons not registering properly
- Machines that let you pay even if you’ve only entered the first letter of your plate.
The machines are 'set up to trap people', she says.
What Happens Next?
The RAC’s head of policy, Simon Williams, says it’s clear that people are being fined unfairly.
"Sadly, it's abundantly clear from the multitude of examples that 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 number plate, 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.
"We desperately need the Government to introduce the Private Parking Code of Practice to bring much-needed scrutiny to the sector.'
The Private Parking Code of Practice — which would’ve set stricter rules for how companies operate — was approved back in 2019 but was scrapped in 2022 after parking firms kicked up a fuss. It would’ve:
- Capped most fines at £50
- Created a better appeals process
- Banned aggressive language in PCNs
Now, Transport Secretary Alexander says it’s time for “dramatic improvement” in the way private parking companies treat the public.
She says we need "machines and equipment that work."
Right now, over 41,000 PCNs are being sent out every day by private companies, according to data crunched by the RAC Foundation.
If you get one and think it’s unfair, the British Parking Association says you should appeal directly to the operator with all the relevant info. That’s if you can even get a reply — Excel Parking and Euro Car Parks, two of the biggest names mentioned in the report, didn’t respond to PA’s requests for comment.
