Hello Dwight, if I was lucky enough to own such land and marked it out for parking I would charge on exit, then people could stay as long as they wished. I am talking about places that you need to park. Where parking is provided so you can go there.

Supermarkets, shopping malls, service areas and hospitals. The first two actually want you to go into their car park, then spend money with them. If by an oversight you overstay by a just a few minutes, do you think it fair for a private parking company to demand £50-£80? Especially when you may just have spent that shopping. The latter two are different, if you need to rest or sleep or hospital visiting or being treated, time can become secondary.

Again is it fair to demand exorbitant sums? For what? The majority of times these overstays occur there are still spaces available, so no real harm done, so why the fee? I will tell you why, because private parking companies need to make profit, so a fair and balanced view of the situation will never be taken.

Do you really want these companies chasing you if you transgress into a minor breach of contract? Forcing you, the registered vehicle keeper to inform against your wife for a 10 minute overstay or pay the 'fine' yourself. Please, while you have the opportunity, overstay deliberately and see the level of harrassment you will be subject to. Speak from experience then let me know.

PS. Even HJ advises just sending these companies £5 in full and final settlement of a minor breach of contract. Unfortunately these unscrupulous companies only use that ammunition. You have provided them with confirmation of address and an admission of guilt. Easier to harrass you further.

Edited by Avant on 04/05/2011 at 00:46

On one hand i dont feel its right for people to park on private land, i happen to live in a place where people think its ok to park on my driveway from time to time if the adjacent car park is full, i know how difficult it is getting such ignorant t*****s moved, police arent interested as its not public highway and despite the fact its very obvious that its a residential address and nothing to do with the adjacent car park and the 4 foot sign is right beside that clearly stating its residents parking, i do support any move to make it easier for land owners and tenants to get cars moved off them.

However, the flip side to that is i dont feel hospitals should be charging for parking of any sort. I know they all claim they are not for profit and all money raised goes purely into the running of the car parks the fact the NHS received £102billion in Government funds last year you'd think that could pay for somewhere to park also wouldnt you? Especially as its free in Wales. And in most cases regular visitors to hospitals can receive permits to park and disabled badge holders are free also. Personally i'd run a system where during your hospital visit someone at reception or in administration gives you a pass card of some sort which you produce on exit to prove you were there for an appointment or as visiting, failure to do so resulting in a charge, this would weed out people who use the hospital car park as somewhere to park whilst they do some shopping. Although the security, parking attendants etc all has to be paid for somewhere by somebody, but i wouldnt be surprised if most NHS hospitals are paying over the odds for the service they're getting from them. As a multi hour stay can run to £20 odd where as in a normal car park just up the road, not connected to a hospital its £8. So theres a difference to be attended to there.

And the fact is if more and more people are not paying these charges, or giving them £5 instead of the £80 owed as mentioned above, the company will bill the NHS for it, who then have to find it in their budget, a budget soon to be slashed, which then goes back to the Government, which then results in this bill.

Supermarkets i think is different, a private company in themselves should be in charge of their own car park and not employing somebody else to do it. Most of them are free to stay in, some have a 2 hour stay before a fee is incurred and then its on a pay and display basis. Usually its the supermarket themselves which want these charges as it stops non-supermarket visitors using their car parks, taking up spaces for people who do want to shop there, and driving them away. A very reasonable point of view i suppose.

I think the system should work in a way where if you are on those premises for the purpose for which it is intended (to visit the supermarket in question etc) then it should be free, if you are abusing the facilities (ie parking your car at the hospital to pop down to the betting shop) then you should have to pay for it. The easiest way to impliment such a system is if the establishment in question runs the car park instead of getting someone else to do it.

But the bottom line is, for years the Government has been trying to stop people driving, with high fuel taxes, VED increases, VAT increases etc, plans which have drained the motorists wallet but hasnt succeeded in forcing them off the road, so now they're going to do their best to give you nowhere to park instead.

Shared space schemes, car parks removed, pedestrianised zones, sky high parking fees, cycle lanes where parking spaces could be etc etc, thats the ugly future.

I understand what your point is, this bill would cover all facets of private parking. What i do object to is places like retail parks having the likes of NCP run the car parks who will send you a £50 bill if you stay for 10 minutes too long (talk about a way to drive trade away!!) yet when some delivery driver blocked my disabled mother into her car parking space and told her to f*** off when she asked them to move, the same security and parking enforcement people claim they cant do anything about it.

Personally i'd have these companies shut down and it should be up to the businesses who use the land to run it. So on the whole i would be against this bill although it would have some useful segments.

Last time it happened i blocked the guy in with my own car and when he was forced to knock on my door to ask me to move i charged him £30 for the privilage following a large argument where he admitted he was in the wrong and then asked "how may i apologise?"

Edited by jamie745 on 05/05/2011 at 19:53