Fewer parking tickets have been issued in the London Borough of Barnet due in some part to the introduction of a cashless parking system.
Motorists in the London borough have received 47,500 fewer penalty charge notices (PCNs) in the 12 months up to March 2010 compared to the previous year.
Overall,143,386 PCNs were issued by the local council compared to 190,144 between April 2008 and March 2009.
According to Barnet Council, the decrease is largely driven by the implantation of the Verrus payment scheme, which allows residents to pay for their parking with their mobile phone.
A statement from the council said: “The decrease in PCNs is due in large part to the introduction of more user friendly schemes, such as cashless parking, free after three and e-permits.”
Motorists simply ring the Verrus service number and pay for their parking fee with their bank card.
It can help reduce the likelihood of receiving a PCN as shoppers can add more credit to their parking ticket without having to return to their car, while reminders can also be sent to the user’s phone before the ticket expires.
Despite this the council lost more than 58% of its appeals at the Parking Adjudicator. Of those lost 44% were not contested! So this is NOT a story going into volume 2 of my book “The Parking Ticket Awards: Crazy Councils, Meter Madness & Traffic Warden Hell”.
Barrie Segal
Founder of AppealNow.com™ http://www.apealnow.com
Can the council (Barnet) compel you to pay for a ticket by phone, in the event that one has already tried to pay at three machines, unsuccessfully (all out of order)?