Disproportional parking fines

[NameChangeParkingProblem]

Feeling frustrated and need to vent. I’ve received multiple parking fines that feel excessive, and honestly, I’m barely holding it together.

First, the Dartford Crossing, which is £1 each way. I drove over the bridge for a holiday trip with my children, and made a mental note to pay later. I hadn’t given it thought prior to the trip, as I didn’t realise it was chargeable over and above road tax. By the time we got to the camping site, I totally forgot about the road fine. There was no payment barrier as there is for the Birmingham bypass.

Another is from picking up a friend from the train station. She had used public transport and had luggage which she couldn’t bring all the way to the car park, even with my help (heavy and she hurt her leg on the journey). I left her at the station and drove to the taxi rank to be able to put her luggage in my car. Then got a parking fine of £170.

Two other ones from broken payment machines, both of which I called the phone number on the machine and left a message. I missed the 14 day response deadline for both, because I’m super busy working full time while being here for my children. I really honestly don’t have time to prepare a defence, on top of everything else. So both attracted a £80 fine each.

I accept that I didn’t follow the rules and that the fines are legitimate. However, it’s just exhausting to try to get about life, and the fines themselves are very high.

Am I being unreasonable that parking fines are not proportionate? If so, can someone in government please take note, as I’m sure that there are many more people dealing with this. My salary isn’t high enough to support this, so I now tell friends to get a taxi; I don’t go out as much, etc.

@NameChangeParkingProblem

I didn’t know about the Dartford charge, because why on earth would anyone think that a road in England required payment?

How on Earth did you miss all the signage telling drivers it was a toll road?? Do you drive with your eyes closed?

In your post, you admitted you knew there was a toll but forgot to pay it.

So you can't then say you didn't know!

In the past few weeks I have parked in the following places as well as my home town.
Leeds, York, Harrogate, Manchester, Liverpool, Sheffield, often more than once
I did not get one parking fine, its not really difficult

Have you ever had to remember to do something and then forgotten?
Given that you are driving along, especially when you are going on a holiday or returning from a long holiday and you have to remember to pay for a crossing you did a few hours / maybe many hours ago?

Can you see that it is possible some people might not remember they have to do it, even if they have seen the signs?

Haha I would absolutely think that if a parking machine was broken and there was no other option to pay (i.e. no app) i could park there for free - what's the alternative? If that is where you need to park (I'm thinking of a car park attached to a shopping centre for example where it wouldn't be easily feasible to park elsewhere) and the means of paying is broken whats the alternative?

What if it was one of the ones where you pay only when you return so you didnt know the machine was broken until youd already been there for several hours, how would you avoid parking for free in that instance, you can't go back in time!

Id obviously take a photo or something proving id tried to park and couldnt, so think if you appealed they'd have a hard time enforcing it. If you look on mse or parking fines advice websites you'll see millions of examples of parking companies backing down if you challenge them - and even if it went to court surely most magistrates or whoever would think the onus would be on the company to ensure there was a working method of payment.

I don't want to be a pedant but there's no such thing as 'road tax'. There's VED, which is a tax on vehicles. Has nothing to do with paying to use roads.

Why do you think you are so special?

You are being legitimately fined for parking illegally and failing to pay tolls reasonably charged by the organisations contracted to manage them.

You are in the wrong. You have no right to demand that fines should be used in a certain way, or who they should go to. If you don't want some "fat cat" to profit from your actions, do the right thing. Pay up and change your habits.

You do not have the moral high-gound here.

If you don't like fines, don't park illegally and make sure you pay in a timely manner for road services you have used. If you try to get away with not paying, you will be caught out and rightly so.

I have been driving for over thirty years and do more than 20,000 miles a year. I have never had a parking fine or failed to pay a toll fee. It's easy to avoid.

Nope. The onus is on you to pay for your parking. This isn't my opinion, it's reality. If you can't pay because the machine is broken, you can't park there.

Get the kids to do it 🤷‍♀️ they are handy with phones from very small! Or shout at Siri to set a reminder and an alarm up later on to do it

You don’t even need the token. It is just done by number plate recognition.

I do have sympathy though. If you don’t know about it and set it up in advance it is a real pain to remember it when you arrive at your destination, when you are excited to be on holiday/visiting someone.

Incompetent or lazy driving

@MatildaMovesMountains @latetothefisting
Every ticket machine I've encountered that was broken has had a phone number on it and I have called that number, and in each case I have given my reg number and they have said I am ok to park there for however man hours I had attempted to pay for. I can't swear this is true for every machine in every part of the country but it's completely normal ime.