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Company type | Trade association, Not-for-profit organisation |
---|---|
Founded | 1968 |
Headquarters | Chelsea House, 8-14 The Broadway, Haywards Heath West Sussex RH16 3AH [1] |
Area served | United Kingdom |
Key people | Andrew Pester (Chief Executive) [2] Jade Neville (President) [3] |
Revenue | £4.18 million GBP (2019) [4] |
Number of employees | Unknown |
Website | http://www.britishparking.co.uk/ |
The British Parking Association Limited (BPA), is a British-based trade association that focuses on parking and traffic management fields. The association is a company limited by guarantee, and non-profit organisation founded in 1968, though was not registered until 1970.
The BPA is fully funded by its members. [5] The association's headquarters is in Haywards Heath, West Sussex. Parking News is its membership journal published eleven times a year for the BPA by Cambridge Publishers Ltd. [6]
The association publishes a list of its members and assets; there are currently 750 corporate members as of 2022, [7] [8] which include manufacturers, suppliers, private car park operators, local authorities, health authorities, universities and colleges, airports, privately owned railway operating companies, shopping centres, bailiffs, debt collectors and consultants. Members, whether from the private or public sectors, pay a subscription fee based on their parking revenues. [9] [10] The BPA also offers membership for individuals [11] and corporate organisations [12]
The association manages the "Safer Parking Scheme" [13] (formerly the Secured Car Parks Award) on behalf of the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO). The purpose of the scheme is to raise the standard of safety, security, design and operation of UK car parks. Car parks that are found to meet the criteria set down by the scheme are awarded the Park Mark Safer Parking Award. [14] The award is made after inspection by an accredited assessor and is subject to re-assessment every 2 years. [15]
The Park Mark award may be granted to both council and privately operated car parks. [16] In 2014 the Scheme celebrated its 10th anniversary since becoming the Safer Parking Scheme. [17]
Advice and guidance for motorists parking on private land can be found on various websites including the BPA, [18] Know Your Parking Rights, [19] Citizens Advice [20] and POPLA. [21] Website forums such as Pepipoo [22] and moneysavingexpert [23] also debate the issues.
The BPA's Approved Operator Scheme (AOS) launched in October 2007. The scheme is for BPA members that are involved in parking enforcement services on private land or in unregulated public car parks and was created after the DVLA announced it would only provide vehicle driver details to companies that joined an Accredited Trade Association. [24] A condition of an ATA is that they have a Code of Practice [25] in place. The BPA has been working with DVLA since their announcement, achieving ATA status and sharing all plans for the AOS with DVLA.
In complying with the Code, operators that are members of the AOS are able to demonstrate that their business operates to a set of standards and that it is recognised as an ostensibly professional and responsible member of the industry. However, if non-compliance to the Code is proven, it leads to sanctions being temporarily applied and could ultimately result in the member being suspended or expelled from the scheme. [26]
Schedule 4 of the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 allows parking operators to recover charges from vehicle keepers if certain conditions are met. This was introduced by Government on the proviso that the parking sector provided the motorist with an Independent Appeals Service (IAS) and that the service is funded by the sector. [ citation needed ] On "relevant land", as defined by Sch. 4 para 3., the law allows the operator to recover any unpaid parking charges from the keeper of the vehicle, providing the requisite conditions are met. [27]
Schedule 4 of the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 applies only to England and Wales [28] . Parking operators are therefore unable to recover unpaid parking charges from vehicle keepers in Scotland and Northern Ireland.
The potential introduction of Transport (Scotland) Act 2019 may introduce keeper liability to Scotland at a future date. [29]
The Parking on Private Land Appeals (POPLA) is the independent appeals service established by the BPA and initially operated by London Councils from October 2012 to September 2015. Ombudsman Services took over as the service provider for POPLA on 1 October 2015. [30] The remit of POPLA to handle appeals by drivers and others wanting to challenge the issue of a parking charge notice issued by members of the BPA's Approved Operator Scheme on private land. POPLA only handles appeals after the recipient of the parking charge notice has been through the internal complaints procedures of the operator who issued the notice. [21]
POPLA is available to all motorists who park on private land where parking is invited as well as locations where parking is not invited. [31] POPLA is judicially independent when it comes to deciding the outcome of an appeal and their decision is binding on the operator only. The POPLA service is free to the motorist with the parking operator being charged a fee for every appeal that is considered. POPLA publishes an annual report which is available on its website. [32]
At the official launch of POPLA, then Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Transport Norman Baker welcomed the first annual report and the success of POPLA stating "This report shows that motorists are using this new free appeals service in significant numbers and, in more than half of cases, having their appeals upheld. This shows the new system is working for drivers and for the parking industry." [33]
In 2019 new legislation was passed when the Parking (Code of Practice) Act became part of the law. [34] The BPA has consistently lobbied for change to introduce better regulation for the private parking sector. [35] The Parking (Code of Practice) Act will bring in greater regulation of the private parking industry with a new independent appeals service, and all private parking operators will also have to follow a new industry backed Code of Practice. [36] The Association set up the Approved Operator Scheme (AOS) in 2007 in response to concerns about the management of car parking on private land, an area of the parking profession in the United Kingdom which was at that time unlegislated. Members of the scheme are required to comply with the BPA's Code of Practice (CoP). [25]
Private car parks are managed by a private parking company, these can be at train stations, retail parks, healthcare facilities, universities, private residential areas and railway stations to name a few. A private parking company can issue a Parking Charge Notice (parking ticket) when a vehicle appears not to be complying with the rules and regulations. To manage parking on private land the operator must belong to an Accredited Trade Association in order to access keeper details from the DVLA, but in order to do so must adhere to the scheme’s Code of Practice. [37] [38]
There are principles in contract law when applied to private parking, that the driver of a vehicle is invited by the parking operator (and/or the landowner) to park in a car parking site, and that the terms and conditions of the parking contract should be set out clearly and concisely through the placement of signs as upon entering and around the site. These are clearly specified in the BPA's Code of Practice for Parking on Private Land. [25]
Operators do not have legal power to issue fines or penalties as a result of people parking on private land, as this is classed as misrepresentation of authority. [39] They are able to issue a Parking Charge Notice (PCN) as specified in Schedule 4 of the Protection of Freedoms Act. [40]
In parking at the site, a driver may have accepted those terms and conditions, provided they are clearly displayed, and the driver has read and understood them as set out in the case of Vine v London Borough of Waltham Forest [2000] EWCA Civ 106.
In his judgment, Lord Justice Roche stated:
The act of clamping the wheel of another person's car, even when that car is trespassing, is an act of trespass to that other persons property unless it can be shown that the owner of the car has consented to, or willingly assumed, the risk of his car being clamped. To show that the car owner consented or willingly assumed the risk of his car being clamped, it has to be established that the car owner was aware of the consequences of his parking his car so that it trespassed on the land of another. That will be done by establishing that the car owner saw and understood the significance of a warning notice or notices that cars in that place without permission were liable to be clamped. Normally the presence of notices which are posted where they are bound to be seen, for example at the entrance to a private car park, which are of a type which the car driver would be bound to have read, will lead to a finding that the car driver had knowledge of and appreciated the warning. In this case the Recorder might have reached such a conclusion about the appellant's state of knowledge, but he did not do so. The Recorder made a clear finding of fact that the appellant did not see the sign. That finding is not surprising in view of the absence of any notice on the wall opposite the southern parking space and the appellant's distressed state, the reason why the appellant parked and left her car hurriedly. It was the appellant's evidence that she did not see the sign. There was never any suggestion that the appellant was other than a truthful witness.
— Lord Justice Roche [41]
In August 2010, the Coalition Government announced their intention to ban clamping on private land. The next two years saw the development and subsequent Royal Assent of the Protection of Freedoms Act [42] which bans all forms of immobilisation without lawful authority.
The BPA welcomed the change as a move to marginalise rogue clampers, but felt that the legislation took away a valuable form of enforcement for landowners to use in the protection of their land. In order to ensure that private enforcement remained with a robust solution, the BPA's discussions with Government resulted in a form of keeper liability being introduced with the Protection of Freedoms Act, [42] allowing the private operator in England and Wales to pursue the registered keeper of a vehicle if a named driver cannot be traced or denies liability.
Wheel clamping on private land was banned as of 1 October 2012 when the Protection of Freedoms Bill was passed into law. [43]
On 10 July 2012, Martin Cutts of the Plain Language Commission made a speech at an event delivered by Landor Publishing [44] "The Enforcement Summit '12" which was attended by some BPA executive members
I try to be fair but I've reluctantly formed the opinion that the BPA lacks the standards of integrity normally required of a Government-accredited trade association. My main evidence for this is what the BPA told the Government as it campaigned successfully to change the law on registered keeper liability. The BPA said 2–5% of its members' tickets were ending up in court, a huge number that in real figures is 36,000 to 90,000 a year, and that this would fall considerably, freeing up the courts' time, if registered keeper liability came in. The Government printed these figures twice as part of its evidence-base in the official impact assessment on the new law, swallowing the BPA argument whole. MPs were convinced, and the law was changed. But the BPA figures were false, and it's hard to imagine that the BPA – which claims to be the "recognized authority" on parking (BPA Masterplan 2012–13) – did not know they were false. The answer to a Freedom of Information request has shown that in 2011 only 845 cases from BPA private members were registered in the court system, and only 49 of them went before a judge for a final hearing. Not 90,000, not 36,000, but 49. A BPA spokesperson has tried to justify the phoney figures, saying: "I think the BPA's data was based on anecdotal conversations with the industry and it's certainly true that these were, a best estimate based on what operators are telling us." It all amounts to the fact that the BPA has conned the Government and it has conned MPs into changing the law.
— Martin Cutts [45]
In a speech made at Europe's largest parking event Parkex [46] on 10 June 2014, [47] Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Transport Robert Goodwill [48] praised the private parking sector by saying that industry self-regulation can succeed and that the establishment of POPLA, providing motorists with independent and free appeals is testament to the high standards that are often promoted by parking professionals, who are providing well designed, fair and proportionate parking services.
Media interest in the association has changed over time. Although members of the BPA have previously had their actions featured on the BBC Consumer Affairs Programme Watchdog, [49] media interest on the private parking profession has decreased since the introduction of the BPA's Approved Operator Scheme and launch of POPLA. The BPA regularly contribute to TV and radio broadcasts when private parking is debated. [50] Consumer help websites including MoneySavingExpert.com forums, Pepipoo, Consumer Action Group also provide their own opinion on the profession.
On 30 August 2012 Combined Parking Solutions (CPS) was suspended from accessing the DVLA database for three months. The suspension was put in place as a result of CPS breaking the DVLA's rules on signage for privately issued parking tickets. The rules state(s) that parking companies must not make reference to liability by anyone other than the driver. On 14 June 2012, the DVLA sent a memo to the BPA about this issue and instructed them to put out a warning to their members. However, CPS was subsequently found to be in breach of this instruction on at least three separate occasions, and this resulted in their suspension. Being suspended from accessing the DVLA's registered keeper database will have a major effect upon how CPS operates. Private parking companies use this database to find out who the registered keeper is of vehicles they wish to issue a ticket to so that they can send out demands for payment. Without this data, they have no way of trying to chase payment where the driver has not identified themselves (e.g. via an appeal). Further to this, the DVLA has confirmed that CPS will not be able to retrospectively gather this data after the suspension ends or via another parking company. Furthermore, shortly before CPS was suspended, the British Parking Association had only just recently appointed a Combined Parking Solutions representative to the Board of its Approved Operator Scheme. They continue to be represented on the AOS Board and no further issues have since been reported. [51] Combined Parking Solutions ceased to be a member of the BPA in November 2014. As part of the BPA's new Governance, the AOS Board ceased to exist in 2014. Approved Operator Scheme members are now represented on the BPA's Council of Representatives. [52]
The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency is the organisation of the British government responsible for maintaining a database of drivers in Great Britain and a database of vehicles for the entire United Kingdom. Its counterpart for drivers in Northern Ireland is the Driver and Vehicle Agency. The agency issues driving licences, organises collection of vehicle excise duty and sells personalised registrations.
A parking lot or car park, also known as a car lot, is a cleared area intended for parking vehicles. The term usually refers to an area dedicated only for parking, with a durable or semi-durable surface. In most jurisdictions where cars are the dominant mode of transportation, parking lots are a major feature of cities and suburban areas. Shopping malls, sports stadiums, and other similar venues often have immense parking lots.
Vehicle insurance is insurance for cars, trucks, motorcycles, and other road vehicles. Its primary use is to provide financial protection against physical damage or bodily injury resulting from traffic collisions and against liability that could also arise from incidents in a vehicle. Vehicle insurance may additionally offer financial protection against theft of the vehicle, and against damage to the vehicle sustained from events other than traffic collisions, such as keying, weather or natural disasters, and damage sustained by colliding with stationary objects. The specific terms of vehicle insurance vary with legal regulations in each region.
A wheel clamp, also known as wheel boot, parking boot, or Denver boot, is a device that is designed to prevent motor vehicles from being moved. In its most common form, it consists of a clamp that surrounds a vehicle wheel, designed to prevent removal of both itself and the wheel.
A parking enforcement officer (PEO), traffic warden, parking inspector/parking officer, or civil enforcement officer is a member of a traffic control agency, local government, or police force who issues tickets for parking violations. The term parking attendant is sometimes considered a synonym but sometimes used to refer to the different profession of parking lot attendant.
A civil penalty or civil fine is a financial penalty imposed by a government agency as restitution for wrongdoing. The wrongdoing is typically defined by a codification of legislation, regulations, and decrees. The civil fine is not considered to be a criminal punishment, because it is primarily sought in order to compensate the state for harm done to it, rather than to punish the wrongful conduct. As such, a civil penalty, in itself, will not carry jail time or other legal penalties. For example, if a person were to dump toxic waste in a state park, the state would have the same right to seek to recover the cost of cleaning up the mess as would a private landowner, and to bring the complaint to a court of law, if necessary.
The Vehicle Identity Check (VIC) was a regulation concerning car ownership that was in force in the UK between 2003 and 2015.
Decriminalised parking enforcement (DPE) is the name given in the United Kingdom to the civil enforcement of car parking regulations, carried out by civil enforcement officers, operating on behalf of a local authority. The Road Traffic Act 1991 (c. 40) provided for the decriminalisation of parking-related contraventions committed within controlled parking zones (CPZ) administered by local councils across the UK. The CPZs under the control of the local councils are also referred to as yellow routes and they can be easily identified with yellow lines marked on the roads with relevant time plates. Councils employ parking attendants to enforce their CPZs directly.
RingGo is a pay by phone parking service, based in the UK owned by EasyPark Group.
The term taxi war refer to the turf wars fought between taxi associations and individual minibus taxi drivers in South Africa from the late 1980s onwards to the present.
The Retail Motor Industry Federation (RMI) represents the interests of motor industry operators in England, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Isle of Man providing sales and services to motorists and businesses. It does not represent businesses in Scotland, which are represented by the independent Scottish Motor Trade Association.
Park and ride bus services in the United Kingdom are bus services designed to provide intermodal passenger journeys between a private mode of transport and a shared mode bus. The common model of bus based park and ride model is transfer from a private car to a public transport bus, although schemes may also be used by pedestrians and cyclists. "Park and ride" commonly refers to permanent schemes operated as part of the public transport system, for onward transport from a permanent car park to an urban centre. ‘Park and ride bus’ can also be used to describe temporary and seasonal schemes, services operated for private or specialised users, and services that do not necessarily serve an urban centre. Bus services can be permanent, seasonal, or only operate on specific days of the week, or for specific events.
The Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. As the Protection of Freedoms Bill, it was introduced in February 2011, by the Home Secretary, Theresa May. The bill was sponsored by the Home Office. On Tuesday, 1 May 2012, the Protection of Freedoms Bill completed its passage through Parliament and received royal assent.
Vine v London Borough of Waltham Forest was a case heard at the Court of Appeal of England and Wales in 2000 and set new case law with regard to the use of wheel clamps by establishing a legal precedent in relation to the concept of consent by expanding upon the decision in the case of Arthur & Another v Anker & Another [1996] 3 AER 783.
Arthur & Another v Anker & Another is an English legal case that set new case law in respect of the use of wheel clamps to immobilise vehicles on private land and is regarded as the leading legal authority on the subject. The case established a legal precedent in relation to the use of wheel clamps and the concept of consent but some years later this was expanded upon in the case of Vine v London Borough of Waltham Forest.
Vehicle registration plates are the alphanumeric plates used to display the registration mark of a vehicle, and have existed in the United Kingdom since 1904. It is compulsory for motor vehicles used on public roads to display vehicle registration plates, with the exception of vehicles of the reigning monarch used on official business.
The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) is an executive agency of the UK Department for Transport (DfT).
YourParkingSpace is an online marketplace and parking reservation service for drivers looking to find and pre-book parking in the United Kingdom. The website and mobile app feature over 350,000 privately owned and commercially operated parking spaces, which are available to book by the hour, day or month on a subscription basis. As of 2018, YourParkingSpace served over 50 cities across the country. The company is headquartered in Stratford, London.
The Barnacle is a device that a parking enforcement officer attaches to a vehicle's windshield to prevent a driver from operating the vehicle until they resolve a parking violation. It attaches to a windshield using suction cups, but unlike a wheel clamp, does not physically prevent a vehicle from moving.