Campaigners are calling for a major overhaul of car parking rules to give motorists more leeway when stopping their vehicles.
A new Parliament petition is calling for a new “legal requirement” which would remind motorists to pay parking charges before they are slapped with heavy fines.
Road users who don’t pay a few pounds to stop in a car park could risk being hit with penalty charge notices of between £80 and £130.
However, campaigner JohnBosco Onyeme claims the current system doesn’t cater for honest road users who simply “forgot” to secure a ticket.
Instead, companies could show they are “not there to penalise” drivers by giving many a second chance to pay.
John said: “We believe that there should be a legal requirement for car park owners to issue a reminder notice to users who forgot to pay the parking charge before they are issued a penalty notice.
“We believe users of car parks would not ordinarily not want to pay for parking their cars. It might be that they forgot.
“Transport for London sends reminder notices to people who hold accounts with them reminding them that they have congestion charges to pay.
“That way, the car park companies could demonstrate that they are not there to penalise users especially when the majority of appeals are denied.
The new code of practice called for road users to benefit from a 10-minute grace period after the expiry of a ticket when they will not be charged.
The experts also called for new standards for signs to ensure all fees were clearly displayed.
The new guidelines will be implemented in October and hopes to prevent drivers from being unfairly caught out by private parking firms.
However, there was nothing in the code around the potential for reminder letters to be issued by drivers.
