as Communities Secretary Eric Pickles takes control

A major new crackdown on ‘cowboy’ parking companies who hand out tickets like confetti was launched this weekend. It comes as Communities Secretary Eric Pickles has been given total control of powers to drive rip-off private operators out of business. Prime Minister David Cameron has handed him the full levers of power – just now transferred from the Department of Transport – to properly wage war on parking companies who ticket cars on private land, not just in council car-parks. Heading the list of abuses Mr Pickles intends to stamp out are unfair and crippling parking charges levied against motorists, the ease with which ‘rogue’ firms can gain access to the Government’s DVLA driver records including home addresses, unfair terms and conditions in car-parks, and poor signage which entraps unsuspecting drivers.He also plans to extend the 10 minute ‘grace period’ into private car parks.

The new crackdown follows a campaign by the Daily Mail highlighting the widespread exploitation by rogue parking firms of millions of innocent motorists. It included evidence of how ‘cowboy’ parking squads hired by High Street firms are hitting hundreds of thousands of drivers with £100 and using threats to make them pay up. It also comes as millions of motorists await the outcome of a test case in the Court of Appeal against ParkingEye which challenges the very legality of such charges and which, if successful, could see tens of millions of pounds repaid to drivers who were wrongly penalised........Read more here