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'Big brother' plan to spot-check and tow cars owing more than three fines
Ruth Bloomfield06.11.09
Legally parked vehicles could be towed away as traffic wardens in London are to do spot checks, hunting for vehicles with a backlog of unpaid tickets.
Drivers who owe for more than three parking tickets or traffic fines risk having their cars impounded under the pilot, which starts on 4 January. A database of vehicles with unpaid fines is being created. Drivers whose cars are towed could end have to pay more than £500 to retrieve them.
London Councils, the umbrella group of local authorities organising the trial, says the scheme is vital to stop persistent fine evaders. It involves six boroughs: Ealing, Camden, Hackney, Hammersmith and Fulham, Wandsworth and Kensington and Chelsea. If successful it will be rolled out across the capital. Ealing has suggested a removal fee of £200 plus £40-a-day storage charges on top of the fines.
But Neil Herron, of parkingappeals.co.uk, said: "It is going to be a nightmare of red tape and litigation and smacks of Big Brother." An AA spokesman said drivers who have only three penalty notices should not be a priority: "Some people have hundreds of unpaid PCNs and it is they that should be the focus."
Reader views (9)
I expect that this will apply to ALL embassy cars then ?
- June, Essex
This is an excellent idea and should help to rid London of the one in eight vehicles which are currently uninsured.
No one has anything to fear except lawless drivers. Of course, there are rather a lot of them around in the capital!
- Jon, London
Penalty Charge Notices (PCN's) are NOTHING to do with upholding 'the law'. They are about raising revenue for corporations - businesses run for profit. Go to the web and look up your local Council, Police, Courts/Ministry of Justice on the Dun & Bradstreet Credit Reference Agency site. You thought they were ‘public services’? Wrong! You will find they are all CORPORATIONS. If they send you a 'Notice' they are inviting you to contract with them. IE they are making you an 'offer'. They will tell you they are enforcing a Statute 'law'. A Statute is NOT law. Only the Common Law is 'law'. A Statute has the force of law, but only 'by the consent of the goverened'. So just do not give them that consent. If they say they already have it, then ask for them to show you the evidence of it. If they impound your car when you have not consented, it is theft, pure and simple.
- David Moon, East Sussex, UK
Reeks of a new revenue stream for MP's and their employed spouses...
- Scrappy-Doo, London
Good, hopefully this will get some more of these menaces of the road.
- Anti Car, London
This is hardly news.
Traffic wardens have done this for quite a few years in SW London.
It is not only unpaid parking fines, but unpaid "cogestion charge" (a euphemism, if there ever was one), lack of insurance and/or tax disc, which can lead to any vehicle being towed away.
- Black Prince, London SW3
Let's hope that they get the right vehicles and not the many cloned ones on the streets.
- Dannyp, Egham
Another fine mess. What if someone has just bought the car, comes out in the morning to go to work, car towed away.These cars should be clamped not towed away.
- Ann Other View, England
Unfortunately this is a fundamental breach of human rights a right of quiet possession. They must pursue the fines through the courts not by using means that may cause severe hardship.
Stand by for a big fight over this one as the current treaty signing will enforce this principle.
- Jenny, London
