There are some conundrums that nearly all motorists face: whether it comes to buying cheap petrol, looking for vehicle recovery cover and insurance that doesn’t cost the Earth, or trying to pick up a pint of milk in town without getting a parking ticket.
But this last problem is being targeted by the Local Government Secretary, Eric Pickles. He says there is an “over-zealous culture of parking enforcement” in the UK, and has publicly asked “officious” parking wardens to be more lenient.
He suggests that such a move would make it easier to park in the UK’s town centres, thereby boosting small businesses. However, many councils rely on the income generated by parking fines, and Pickles therefore risks a clash with them over the issue.
Pickles claimed that the “rigid state orthodoxy of persecuting motorists” was damaging small British businesses.
It is thought that ministers are considering new rules that would stop parking wardens from issuing parking tickets to people who stopped briefly in town to carry out an errand.
Pickles also said town councils should create more off-street parking in a bid to reduce pressure on busy main roads, and criticised Labour’s policies on the issue.
Local authorities are likely to be dismayed with Pickles’ words, since they collect a great deal of money from parking fines, estimated to be 1.27billion in 2011. With central government cutbacks, such revenue streams are arguably more important to councils than ever.
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