Newly published government statistics show that drivers in England and Wales paid on average £781 million in parking fines in the year 2008/9. Following on from the government statistics, NoParkingFine Ltd, state that with less than 1% of the population making appeals, approximately £515 million has been wasted by us on making payments for parking fines that have no legal validity.

Safiya Hussain, director and legal consultant of NoParkingFine Ltd, said “the reason why people do not appeal is simply because they do not know what legal grounds they can appeal on. There are hundreds of complex laws which the local authorities must abide by before issuing parking fines. The authorities breach these laws most of the time yet parking wardens still issue invalid parking fines. And what do we do? We sigh and we pay.”

“I am not against parking restrictions as they are sometimes in place for safety and traffic flow”, says Hussain, “but let’s face it- a time has now come when the original intentions have been distorted into a money-making scheme for the local authorities. When a member of public goes over his time-limit by half a minute or parks in a space where the signs are unclear but still receives a PCN by over-zealous parking wardens then surely we must stand up for our rights? It has become an increasing stealth tax. If we are going to be taxed in such a way, then we have the right to ensure that the local authorities are within the laws to do this. If they aren’t, then we’ll keep our money and buy a nice treat with it thank you very much.”