News, East Midlands
An MP who says he is receiving “more and more” complaints about private car parks says the sector should not be left to regulate itself.
Derby South MP Baggy Shanker says he has been contacted by numerous people who have been penalised at the controversial Copeland Street car park in his constituency – including one of his own colleagues.
Following publicity about the case of Rosey Hudson – who was “fined” nearly £2,000 for taking longer than five minutes to pay for parking – the two trade associations for private parking have announced they are setting up a panel to revise and oversee the sector’s own code of practice.
However, Shanker and 11 other MPs are calling on the government to introduce its own statutory code of practice that private car park operators must follow.
Shanker said: “It’s obvious from the enquiries we’re getting now in Derby – and other colleagues are getting across the country – the voluntary code just simply isn’t working.
“They’ve come up with a set of practices that they say they will adhere to, and it’s obvious they’re not strong enough and they’re not being adhered to properly, so the only way we feel this can be resolved is to have a mandatory code.”
He said his colleague received a parking charge notice (PCN) for the same reason as Miss Hudson.
“Basically she’d parked, taken her children to Jumpin Fun, and on another occasion her husband had parked there, and her parents had parked there,” he said.
“It took them more than five minutes [to pay] because of the equipment being poor.”
She and her relatives paid the three £60 PCNs rather than challenging them – and Shanker said many drivers did the same because they were afraid of going to court.
Shanker and the other MPs are arguing that statutory regulation is needed to protect drivers from “unclear and unfair practices”.
In a letter to local growth minister Alex Norris, they wrote: “We believe that relying on self-regulation is insufficient.
“Time and again, statutory regulation has proven the most effective way to protect consumers in other sectors such as banking, energy, and telecommunications.
“It is clear that the same approach must be applied to the private parking industry.”
Those behind the letter include Derby North MP Catherine Atkinson – who has previously raised the issue in Parliament – and Darlington MP Lola McEvoy – who has been helping a constituent asked to pay more than £11,000 in charges.
The letter said each MP had received numerous complaints about operators from drivers who had “faced significant financial penalties for late payment, even when they report making genuine efforts to comply”.
“Contributing factors beyond their control include unclear or misleading signage, malfunctioning payment machines, and insufficient alternative methods for purchasing tickets,” the letter added.
The private parking sector’s existing code of practice was introduced in June 2024 by the British Parking Association (BPA) and International Parking Community (IPC).
These are the two accredited trade associations (ATAs) for private parking operators.
Car park operators need to be a member of an ATA in order to buy drivers’ names and addresses from the DVLA, and therefore be able to send them fines.
Statistics published by the DVLA suggest operators are issuing more PCNs than ever before.
In the first half of the 2024-25 financial year, car park operators paid the DVLA for 7,236,328 keeper details.
This compares to 4,770,984 for the entire 2016-17 financial year. The figure has been steadily increasing each year, apart from a dip during the pandemic in 2020-21.
While these PCNs are often referred to as fines, they are effectively letters asking for money for alleged breach of contract.
Car park operators typically argue drivers have breached a contract by not abiding to the terms and conditions of a particular car park, for example, by not paying for parking within a certain time, or for entering a car registration number incorrectly.
The previous government published a code of practice in February 2022 and it was due to come into effect by the end of 2023.
However, it was withdrawn following legal challenges launched by several parking firms.
Will Hurley, chief executive of the IPC, said this was why the ATAs then introduced their own joint code, as each ATA previously had its own.
“I actually wanted to help the government deliver the single code of practice and have been supportive of that from the very beginning,” he told the .
“The reality is we took the government’s code and we implemented the vast majority of it.”
However, he said he was still supportive of the government introducing a statutory code of practice.
Isaac Occhipinti, head of external affairs at the British Parking Association (BPA), said his association would also support a statutory code of practice.
However, he said amending the industry’s own code of practice would lead to quicker changes.
He added: “We are actually going to be meeting a number of MPs in a couple of weeks’ time to discuss what potential changes we could make to the code of practice, because I think that’s probably a quicker way to actually get changes to happen than to wait for the government code of practice.”
Excel Parking has declined numerous requests for an interview.
However, a representative said via email: “Excel Parking will adhere to any changes made to the private parking industry Single Sector Code of Practice.”
Excel Parking is also continuing to insist that Miss Hudson, who it sent 10 PCNs to, was in the wrong – despite the parking firm having discontinued its £1,906 court claim against her.
“Miss Hudson did not comply with the specified terms and conditions for parking at the Copeland Street car park as she purchased the parking tariffs well beyond the required timescale,” the spokesperson said.
Luke Harrison, a solicitor who has helped more than 20 people fight PCNs free of charge, is sceptical about the sector’s pledge to change.
“Every industry that is doing things that they don’t want to be regulated, the first move is to set up an industry-owned association that sets up a code of practice that they all subscribe to, and then they go to government and say, ‘we’ve got a code of practice, so you don’t need to look into us’,” he said.
“It’s a classic tactic, it’s happened in financial services, it’s happened in all kinds of other industries, this voluntary code of practice approach.”
Mr Harrison said the majority of cases were easy to defend, but added it was not proportionate for most people to spend money on legal advice.
The government is expected to make an announcement on plans for a parking code of practice soon.
A Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government spokesperson said: “Motorists must be protected when using private car parks and we are determined to drive up standards in the industry.
“We know how much of an issue this is for drivers, which is why we will set out further details on the private parking code of practice as soon as possible.”