£60m paid in 'unfair' parking fines

I have very little sympathy for anyone who has paid an 'unfair' parking ticket. If you think it's unfair then don't pay it - fight it!

You must remember that a parking ticket isn't a fine in itself - it's a statement that someone believes you were parked wrongly.

If you contest the ticket there's a good chance that you will get off. Being too busy to bother doesn't really cut it for me - you need to fight for things like this otherwise you'll be getting tickets for every slight issue.

Captain Gatso

£60m paid in 'unfair' parking fines

Drivers lost almost £60 million last year by failing to appeal against unfair parking tickets, according to a survey.

In 2010, around 5% of motorists in the UK received a parking ticket where they had grounds for appeal, paying out an estimated £58.5 million, the poll by car insurer LV= found.

Of these, only 22% bothered to contest the ticket but of those who did, 88% were successful in their claim.

More than half (53%) who chose not to appeal said they assumed they would lose, while 8% did not know how to initiate a claim.

The poll of 2,003 adults, including 1,728 drivers, showed that the majority of unfair parking fines are issued in areas were parking signage is unclear.

A total of 2% of drivers said parking attendants had fabricated evidence to support the issuing of a ticket.

Nearly half (49%) of tickets issued unfairly are given out on public roads, while 10% are issued in car parks of public buildings managed by local councils, including libraries, hospitals and doctors' surgeries.

Also, 182,000 tickets issued unfairly last year came from unregulated private parking operators.

As many as 10% of motorists given an unfair ticket on privately-owned land said they had been threatened with court proceedings or debt recovery action if they did not pay up.

The average cost paid by motorists given a ticket in unfair circumstances was £42.

Home Office concedes Britain likely to become a surveillance state

We keep on warning people about what is happening; this sleepwalking into a police state and that the authorities won't let go of their powers too easily.

Here is a piece from an online news site which underlines what we here at MAD have been saying.

Captain Gatso

Faced with the quickening pace of technological development Ministers have claim that their election pledge to roll back the surveillance state will make it increasingly difficult to prevent such measures from becoming commonplace.

The warnings coincides with publication of consultation on plans for a code of practice to govern the introduction of such technologies, which includes giving the public the right to take councils to court if they believe CCTV surveillance is becoming too intrusive.

The Protection of Freedoms Bill will see a new Security Camera Commissioner established to vet a new breed of HD, 360 degree vision, zoom lens cameras equipped with facial recognition software didn’t overstep the mark.

Unmanned aerial drones were also looked at with the report stating “ there is scope for their unchecked proliferation and attendant risks if they are not considered within any overarching strategy”.

There are presently four million CCTV cameras in operation in the UK – one for every 14 citizens.

You need to read that last line again. We have more cameras than anywhere else on earth - why? And most of those cameras are sited in cities so the figure per person is sure to be horrific.

They aren't there to detect or prevent crime.