PICKLES WARNS ROGUE FIRMS

PRIVATE parking firms accused by critics of dishing out tickets like confetti face a crackdown, Eric Pickles has warned.

The Communities Secretary has been given powers to regulate them by the Prime Minister and has in his sights practices such as crippling charges, unfair terms and conditions and poor signage in car parks which entraps unsuspecting drivers.

He has also pledged to restrict firms’ access to motorists’ records from the DVLA. And he plans to extend the ten-minute grace period – the time which council wardens must wait before issuing fines after a ticket has expired – to private car parks.

Regulation of private parking firms used to be covered by the Department for Transport. Mr Pickles, who has already pledged a crackdown on the extent of local council parking enforcement, said: ‘There is more to do – there are still rogue practices by private car park sharks that we need to stamp out.’