Rogue Parking Firms Banned from DVLA Database

A crackdown on the sharing of data about motorists will be used to drive "dodgy" parking firms out of business, the Government has said.

It has indicated it is ready to bar companies that fall foul of a new code of practice from accessing the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) database, preventing them from issuing fines and in effect forcing them out of the industry.

The Government is planning to throw its weight being a backbench bill for a Parking (Code of Practice) Bill from Conservative MP Greg Knight. The bill is up for debate on Friday 2 February, and would likely run out of time without Government backing.

The move has come in response to growing anger about an explosion in the number of parking fines issued by private operators, often as a result of confusing signs in car parks, motorists’ groups say.

Drivers have also protested about the size of fines, intimidating payment letters and a complex appeals process – fuelled by the firms’ buying data from DVLA records.

Suffering drivers
Communities Secretary Sajid Javid said: “For too long drivers have suffered from unjust fines at the hands of dodgy parking firms. We need a fairer, clearer and more consistent system that brings the small minority of unscrupulous operators in line with those who are behaving appropriately.

“That is why the Government is putting the brakes on these rogue operators and backing new laws that will put a stop to aggressive behaviour and provide a simpler way for drivers to appeal fines.”

The DVLA makes more than £1.4 million a month from selling motorists' information to companies. In the three-month period between July and September last year, 1,429,703 records were sold for tickets issued remotely - almost 13 times higher than the 111,944 records sold a decade earlier in the same period.

A 2012 Act introduced the power for operators to fine owners of vehicles, rather than having to prove who was driving, which has resulted in the surge in remote fines. But nearly 10,000 people approached Citizens Advice for help appealing against private parking tickets last year.

Steve Gooding, director of the RAC Foundation, said it was backing the bill, adding: “We all hoped the ban on clamping would end the sharp practices that had come to plague private parking, but the fact that companies are issuing millions of penalty tickets annually is clear evidence that something is still going badly awry.”

The vehicle owners would be issued new Universal Numbers from March first as Excise and Taxation
Rawalpindi is finalizing all the arrangements in this regard. According to Director, Excise and Taxation Rawalpindi, Tanveer Abbas Gondal, the new vehicle registration system is being introduced for facilitation of the citizens. He said, the system was to be introduced from Jan first but delayed for two months. The whole process would include smart cards, number plates and universal number.

Talking to APP, Excise and Taxation Officer, Admin, Numan informed that the Excise and Taxation Department and Punjab Safe City Project (PSCA) had proposed to introduce new vehicle number plates design for the province. The reason behind new number plate design is that CCTV cameras are not able to detect and read the current number plates.

The modified size and font size of the universal number plates would make them camera-readable, he added. From Mar 1, Universal Number plates will be issued across the province, he said.

The Punjab government is going to introduce new system of vehicles registration from March which will not only discourage fabrication, forged documents but streamline the whole process of registration. No one can get registered, a vehicle already registered with same chassis number in any other district of the province, he added. He further said, the universal number system would help curtail registration load on big districts like Lahore and Rawalpindi due to their higher resale values and small district would be able to get their revenue share.

New figures show that during the last quarter of 2017, the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) passed on record numbers of driver details to private parking firms. In data released by the company itself, it was found that a total of 1,576,593 records were released between October and December 2017 – the highest quarterly total yet announced.

In total, 4.3 million sets of personal details were handed to parking firms in this financial year. The RAC Foundation suggested that figures would rise even higher in 2017-2018, with the DVLA on track to sell nearly 6 million records during that time.

Of that data sold, a staggering 1,530,259 instances of data were sold to just one company – Parking Eye. Other high-hitters were Smart Parking and Euro Car Parks, which purchased over 300,000 instances of driver data each.

With the projected figures for the financial year 2017-18, the DVLA could be set to make around £15 million from selling the data, which it charges parking firms £2.50 each time to access. Penalties issued by private parking firms have soared in number, increasing more than 20 times in the last decade.

Motoring groups have claimed ticketing has reached 'epidemic proportions' and suggestions that operators are using legal but dubious methods to entrap motorists. Drivers complain of poorly signposted regulations, confusing payment machines, and inconsistent appeals processes.

Steve Gooding, director of the RAC Foundation, said: "The fact that ticketing has reached such epidemic proportions demonstrates exactly why legislation is needed."

Retired film producer sues the DVLA after it ruled the £250,000 classic racing car he bought was actually ‘a blend of old and new parts built in 2002’ making it only worth £100,000

A retired film producer whose dream racing car 'plummeted' in value when the DVLA stripped away its historic status is now suing for £150,000 damages.

Julian Seddon, a one-time close pal of legendary motorcyclist Barry Sheen, paid £250,000 for the AC Cobra, which he believed was an authentic 1964 model.

But the DVLA later dropped a bombshell when it said the car was built in 2002 and was a blend of 'old and new parts', said his barrister, John Black QC.

Mr Seddon ended up having to sell the car for just £100,000 and, in a unique case, is now suing the DVLA to recoup the difference.

The iconic AC Cobras were manufactured in the 1960s at workshops in Thames Ditton.

One was reputed to have clocked speeds approaching 190mph on the M1 in the early hours as the car's team trained for the 1964 Le Mans event.

But the value of Mr Seddon's Cobra plunged even faster than that when the DVLA raised doubts about its origins, London's High Court heard.

And the 75-year-old, who once raced cars himself and has collected over 20 vehicles over the years, says the DVLA was negligent in failing to warn about its doubts before he bought the car in October 2014.