Cars with unpaid parking tickets to face towing

Wednesday, July 23rd, 2008

Drivers who fail to pay three parking tickets face having their car towed or clamped under new rules which will come into force in two months.

 

Traffic wardens employed by local councils will monitor the streets for offenders and will have the power to take immediate action if they spot a car which has at least three unpaid parking tickets. The car will be clamped or towed, even if the car is parked legally at the time it is spotted. The car can only be reclaimed by the owner once all oustanding fines have been paid.

 

The same punitive action will be taken against motorists who have failed to pay fines for other motor traffic offences, such as driving in a bus lane.

 

Local authorities in London will be the first to gain the new powers, with councils across the country expected to follow suit. A six-month trial of the new rules will be carried out in four London authorities – Ealing, Hammersmith & Fulham, the Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea, and Transport for London.

 

The rules will apply equally to foreign drivers as no distinction will be made between cars registered in the UK and those with foreign number plates.

 

The government is considering the creation of a national database of parking offenders, as well as the option of passing on the details of persistent offenders to the police, who would store the details on the Police National Computer.

 

Several groups are concerned that innocent motorists might run foul of the new laws, namely those who are waiting for their appeals against illegal parking tickets to be dealt with by the local council.

 

As parking problems in the capital become ever more severe – from the difficulty of obtaining a parking spot to the risk of being slapped with a parking ticket to the threat of having one’s car towed or clamped – the best option for stress-free, risk-free and secure parking for regular drivers into London is to obtain a season parking ticket with private parking companies such as 24 7.

 

 

 

 

For press enquiries, please contact Peter Cooper on 020 7038 3970

Email: info@247parking.com

Web: www.247parking.com

 

News provided by 24 7 Parking Ltd, a leading marketing services provider to the car parking industry in the UK, and a leading de facto marketplace for buyers and sellers, or lessees and lessors, of car parking spaces.

 

24 7 Parking carries out daily surveys of the national media to provide up-to-date news and commentary on UK transport.

London the most expensive place to park?

Wednesday, July 16th, 2008

It will cost you more to park your car in London than anywhere else in the world, according to a report released today. The report, produced by property consultants Colliers International, is the first global analysis of parking costs, and puts London right at the top.

 

In particular, parking in the City of London is far higher than other financial centres. The cost for monthly parking in the City, the most expensive area, is $1,167 (€733, £586), and in the West End, the second highest, it’s $1,136. This is twice as much as New York’s midtown area, which is $585 per month, and Tokyo, at $552.

 

The City is also the most expensive for daily parking costs, at $68, followed by Amsterdam, London’s West End, Moscow and The Hague. Delhi is the cheapest city to park, at $1.75 per day.

 

Parking costs in Australian cities are among the highest, with Sydney being the third most expensive city worldwide at $775 per month. In all other global regions, such as Latin America, Africa and the Middle East, the relatively low cost of parking is sure to rise with growing demand and increasingly structured parking.

 

With the cost of parking being so high in London, drivers would do well to consider their other options, namely specialized parking companies which offer parking contracts. Among these, London’s parking company 24 7 offers significant savings on such contracts, making this option clearly the most advantageous one for any car-owner driving into London on a regular basis.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For press enquiries, please contact Peter Cooper on 020 7038 3970

Email: info@247parking.com

Web: www.247parking.com

 

News provided by 24 7 Parking Ltd, a leading marketing services provider to the car parking industry in the UK, and a leading de facto marketplace for buyers and sellers, or lessees and lessors, of car parking spaces.

 

24 7 Parking carries out daily surveys of the national media to provide up-to-date news and commentary on UK transport.

Motorists to benefit from changes to congestion charge

Tuesday, July 8th, 2008

London’s congestion charge is going through changes, with the scrapping of a proposed new charge and the consideration of changes to the existing scheme in the pipeline.

 

The city’s mayor, Boris Johnson, has abandoned plans for charging gas-guzzling 4X4 vehicles £25 to come into the city centre, following a legal challenge by the German carmaker Porsche. The proposal, which would have applied to vehicles emitting more than 225 grams of carbon dioxide per one kilometre, as well as cars registered before March 2001 with engines larger than 3,000 cc, was put forward by Ken Livingstone, Johnson’s predecessor, and would have taken effect in October. It would have affected some 17% of cars currently being driven in the congestion charging zone, a figure that reflects the popularity of large SUV-type vehicles.

 

In its legal challenge to the proposed charge, Porsche presented research that showed that the charge would have actually increased CO2 emissions because people would have to drive further to avoid the congestion zone.

 

Also, say those in favour of scrapping the proposed charge, congestion would have been increased by allowing thousands of small cars in for free, as Livingstone had planned to do for cars with the lowest emissions. But opponents call it a blow to London’s attempts to help tackle climate change, and that the needs of a few had been put above pressing environmental concerns.

 

In a separate move that would also work in favour of motorists, Mr Johnson is considering changes to make London’s £8 congestion charge more flexible, such as applying the charge only during the busiest periods of the day, scrapping an extension of the charge to West London, and offering discounts during quieter periods. Also to be reconsidered are the amount of time motorists are allowed to pay the charge, as well as the methods for paying it.

 

Under the current scheme, the charge applies to any vehicle that moves inside the zone between 7 am and 6 pm. By contrast, the proposed review would aim for greater flexibility, similar to the scheme planned for Manchester, which applies charges for only a few hours a day during the busiest times.

 

 

 

 

 

 

For press enquiries, please contact Peter Cooper on 020 7038 3970

Email: info@247parking.com

Web: www.247parking.com

 

News provided by 24 7 Parking Ltd, a leading marketing services provider to the car parking industry in the UK, and a leading de facto marketplace for buyers and sellers, or lessees and lessors, of car parking spaces.

 

24 7 Parking carries out daily surveys of the national media to provide up-to-date news and commentary on UK transport.

High inflation to send rail fares soaring

Thursday, July 3rd, 2008

Rail passengers will face huge, inflation-busting increases in train fares as a consequence of the ever-rising costs in diesel and electricity. These increases could be two to three times the rate of inflation, adding more than £100 extra for some season ticket holders.

 

The government’s ‘RPI plus one’ formula allows rail companies to increase fares by 1% above the retail price index (RPI), which is expected to be 4.5% or more this month. Some companies will be allowed to make even higher increases. Though rail companies make hundreds of millions of pounds in profit, this mechanism allows them to keep increasing fares annually regardless of how severely such increases will hit commuters in times of high inflation.

 

From January 2009, when the new fares come into effect, some ticket prices will rise by 10% or more, while hundreds of thousands of commuters face average increases of between 6% and 8%. Commuters travelling from Kent and East Sussex by Southeastern will be the worst hit, with rises of around 8%.

 

But even before the season tickets go up in January, there may be further rises in September, this time on fares which are not regulated by the government. As the government cuts back on its subsidies, rail operators are trying to find ways to raise more cash through the back door, rather than by across-the-board fare rises which would be hugely unpopular. Such stealth measures include cut-backs on the availability of cheap tickets, increases in parking charges, and a host of other restrictions. An example of a recent stealth rise is the move by Arriva (which took over the cross-country franchise from Virgin) to make passengers wait till 9.30 before they can buy the cheapest fares.

 

Faced with soaring rail fares, worsening travel conditions (such as overcrowding and delays), and stealth measures that further reduce the ease and increase the cost of train travel, long-suffering commuters may find that making their journey by car becomes the preferable option.

 

 

 

 

For press enquiries, please contact Peter Cooper on 020 7038 3970

Email: info@247parking.com

Web: www.247parking.com

 

News provided by 24 7 Parking Ltd, a leading marketing services provider to the car parking industry in the UK, and a leading de facto marketplace for buyers and sellers, or lessees and lessors, of car parking spaces.

 

24 7 Parking carries out daily surveys of the national media to provide up-to-date news and commentary on UK transport.