Reply to post: Re: And this ladies and gentlemen...

0ops. 1,OOO-plus parking fine refunds ordered after drivers typed 'O' instead of '0'

ovation1357

Re: And this ladies and gentlemen...

"Really, there's no excuse (from a design perspective*) for not looking up the plate against a database":

https://www.bucksfreepress.co.uk/news/15022494.council-forced-to-ditch-anpr-parking-system-in-favour-of-pay-and-display/

^^^ *THIS* happened in my local town, and it was a massive step backwards because of a totally bonkers legal problem...

Despite a few teething issues, the new ANPR based system was brilliant. Firstly, it enabled occasional visitors the ability to pay on exit for the exact amount of time they'd been parked instead of having to try and guess how long they'll be and buy a non-refundable ticket up-front.

But regular users like me could pre-register their vehicle and payment details and then simply drive in and out with no further action required. The system was installed at all the council-run car parks in the county so it meant I could turn up at most of the surrounding towns and villages and simply park. It appeared to be accurate and we only one had a minor problem when it registered my wifes car entering but not leaving and I don't recall that being any hassle to resolve.

You could log on to your account and download a full parking history and VAT receipts...

But then it turned out that whilst private parking operators can use DVLA data to invoice punters for unpaid parking; local government bodies are prohibited from doing so. This actually resulted in DVLA blocking the council's access to registered keeper records and therefore they couldn't send any fines for non-payment. People eventually figured this out and abused the system.

Sadly now it's back to a pay and display system :-( Technically they could still do the preregistration thing but they've opted to go back to the old-school way of doing things. It's a sad fauilre. The council was lambasted for the waste of public money but I do actually feel some sympathy for them in this case.

Hopefully this law will be changed eventually and allow them to reinstate the service: But meanwhile, they actually can't lookup the plate against the database :-(

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