‘Jayne’s Law’ Proposed To Reform Parking Fines
Friday, 11. May 2018
Far too often motorists, when parking on private land owned by developers or local authorities, are victimised and subsequently fined with dodgy parking penalties.
Jayne Snow, 25, drives a mid-sized car and paid to park in a council run bay. She didn’t overrun her stay but still received a parking ticket. Medway Council, who issued the ticket, did so by suggesting that her car was too long.
I kid you not – that was the reason for issuing the ticket. Her car measured four and a bit metres, which isn’t long, but she still received a fine of £75. She challenged the fine by explaining that her car wasn’t too long, the bays were too short.
After revisiting the car park with a tape measure she pointed out that her parking bay along with those close by measured just 3.5 metres.
This would only make the bays legal for Smart cars and similarly sized cars but not the tens of millions of other cars used daily.
Jayne, went on to point out to the council that their own standards stated that parking bays should be a minimum of 4.8 metres, not sub 3.5 metres.
Having won her case Jayne is now campaigning for other motorists to stand their ground when they feel that a parking ticket has been unfairly issued. Challenge and certainly don’t pay is her advice if you feel you’ve done nothing wrong.
Her advice is, ‘Check your evidence, do your research and stand up to authority.’ The Council cancelled the fine but not until Jayne had received a great deal of publicity.
Under the proposed ‘Jayne’s Law’, she would not only have had the fine cancelled she would also be awarded compensation for her time and expenses involved in fighting the imposed fines.
It seems that there is a movement afoot to get this issue raised in Parliament via Jayne’s local MP. Where do I sign? By Graham Hill
