We’re only human, and it’s never pleasant to punish someone for making a mistake. Yet for years, drivers have had to pay a hefty fine for entering the wrong number plate details when parking.
Luckily, a revised look at such policies means these hefty fines could be a thing of the past!
The British Parking Association (BPA), after looking up the Code of Practice and looking at ways to improve it, have ruled that firms who operate under the Approved Operator Scheme can overturn fines given for ‘minor keying errors’.
But what does a minor keying error look like?
The BPA defines it as one character being entered incorrectly, or when the registration has been entered in an incorrect order.
Some examples would be:
- 0 instead of o
- I instead of L
- 1 instead of I
- Up to one letter – or number – wrong, removed, or swapped
- Numbers and/or letters in the wrong order, yet the registration can still be recognised.
As some of you might have (unfortunately) found out, Parking Charge Notices set you back up to £100, even when the error in question was a trivial one.
In response to that, the BPA decided to recognise that genuine mistakes can happen, offering more flexibility on the event, and acknowledging those who have actually paid for the parking.
The new Code of Practice also provides a ‘grace period’ of around 10 minutes before the PCN can be issued.
These rules have been in place for just over a week, and any PCNs to follow, if found unfair, must be cancelled at the first stage of the appeal.
For a more detailed review of the revised rules, they can be found on the British Parking Association Website.