Ever got hit with a private car park fine and wondered if anyone actually wins when they challenge it? Turns out, yes, some tickets do get cancelled. But the real issue is how little we know about what’s actually going on behind the scenes.
There’s growing pressure on private car park companies to come clean and publish proper data. The RAC is calling for full transparency, including how many fines are handed out, how many get cancelled after a complaint, and why. Right now, the two big industry bodies, the British Parking Association (BPA) and the International Parking Community (IPC), aren’t sharing that kind of info.
The appeal system isn’t great either. POPLA (Parking on Private Land Appeals), the BPA’s own appeals body, still hasn’t released its 2024 figures. When it did report on 2023, it said 43% of appeals were successful. But when you break it down, only 17% actually made it to an official adjudicator. A further 25% of tickets were cancelled by the operators themselves without a fight. So a good chunk of people who challenge a fine don’t even need to go through the full appeal process.
Still, most cases that do reach the final stage are thrown out. In fact, 78% were rejected.
Meanwhile, car park firms are requesting nearly 40,000 driver details every single day from the DVLA, and almost all of these lead to fines. RAC’s head of policy, Simon Williams, says “Stories of drivers being treated poorly are all too common” and wants the full picture shared publicly.
He’s pushing for the industry to release detailed complaints data, including how many are made, what the fines are for, what the complaints say, and how often they result in cancellations.
All of this comes as the Government plans to finally consult on a proper official Private Parking Code of Practice, something that was originally meant to happen years ago but got blocked by legal action from car park companies. Instead, the industry introduced its own code, and unsurprisingly, it leans heavily in their favour.
The Government says its plans will stop shady tactics and confusing processes and bring more transparency overall. But critics say it still doesn’t go far enough, especially when it comes to cutting the maximum fine you can be hit with.
The AA has already accused Labour of giving in to parking companies, while the BPA claims that without enforcement, parking becomes a “free-for-all.”
So, the next time you get a fine, know this: challenging it might actually work, but the system still seems stacked against drivers.
