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Using CCTV for parking fines is a 'violation of Magna Carta'
Brandon Lewis, the high streets minister, says it is “natural justice” for drivers to appeal parking fines as using CCTV goes against the rule of law.
Councils that raise revenue through parking fines are engaging in a form of taxation without consent that runs contrary Magna Carta, the document that formed the bedrock of England’s democracy.
At least 36 local authorities in England and Wales are using static CCTV cameras to monitor parking offences, while 58 are using cameras mounted on cars. Drivers have been hit with £312 million in fines.
They have been matched with a rise in consultants who advise people how to successfully challenge parking tickets.
Mr Lewis said councils were harming local businesses by pushing away shoppers, and using parking enforcement as a revenue stream. His department is now reviewing the rules.
Asked if people were right to challenge their parking tickets, he said: “It's quite right. If people feel they have been given a ticket inappropriately or wrongly, they have the right to appeal. That's natural justice.”
“When you look at it in its purest essence it’s against the essence of Magna Carta,” he told The Telegraph. “It’s against the rule of law: you can't raise revenue and taxes without the agreement of the people. What you are doing with CCTV, if its revenue raising, is raising revenue where you don't legally have the power to do.”
He added: “There's an argument some people are putting that CCTV is about safety. The reality is CCTV does not make you park safely. CCTV gives you a ticket weeks after the event.”
Councils that cut their parking charges have seen a surge in footfall to high streets and more business revenue, Mr Lewis said, adding: “Penalising people for going to the town centre driving, that's just crazy”.
Magna Carta, the first declaration of the rights of English citizens, was sealed in June 1215 by King John at Runnymede, Surrey. It stated that no taxation – or ‘scrutage’ – could be levied on his barons “without the assent of the community of the realm”.
It laid down the principle that the government is subject to the law and answerable to the people. However, the document has almost no force in law today, according to Prof Nick Vincent, a historian of Magna Carta at the University of East Anglia.
Mr Lewis is in charge of Communities Department’s celebrations of the eight hundredth anniversary of the sealing next year.
Drivers stand a good chance of overturning a ticket if they can show the local authority made a technical error in issuing it, such as citing the wrong law, failing to specify precisely where the infraction occurred or not meeting the 28-day deadline for issuing the ticket.
Campaigners have also over-turned tickets issued by CCTV after demonstrating the council did not use an “approved device” to take the footage. An appeal may also succeed if the council cannot show that every frame of the CCTV footage contains a time in hours, minutes and seconds, a date and is sequentially numbered.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/poli...gna-Carta.html
Brandon Lewis, the high streets minister, says it is “natural justice” for drivers to appeal parking fines as using CCTV goes against the rule of law.
Councils that raise revenue through parking fines are engaging in a form of taxation without consent that runs contrary Magna Carta, the document that formed the bedrock of England’s democracy.
At least 36 local authorities in England and Wales are using static CCTV cameras to monitor parking offences, while 58 are using cameras mounted on cars. Drivers have been hit with £312 million in fines.
They have been matched with a rise in consultants who advise people how to successfully challenge parking tickets.
Mr Lewis said councils were harming local businesses by pushing away shoppers, and using parking enforcement as a revenue stream. His department is now reviewing the rules.
Asked if people were right to challenge their parking tickets, he said: “It's quite right. If people feel they have been given a ticket inappropriately or wrongly, they have the right to appeal. That's natural justice.”
“When you look at it in its purest essence it’s against the essence of Magna Carta,” he told The Telegraph. “It’s against the rule of law: you can't raise revenue and taxes without the agreement of the people. What you are doing with CCTV, if its revenue raising, is raising revenue where you don't legally have the power to do.”
He added: “There's an argument some people are putting that CCTV is about safety. The reality is CCTV does not make you park safely. CCTV gives you a ticket weeks after the event.”
Councils that cut their parking charges have seen a surge in footfall to high streets and more business revenue, Mr Lewis said, adding: “Penalising people for going to the town centre driving, that's just crazy”.
Magna Carta, the first declaration of the rights of English citizens, was sealed in June 1215 by King John at Runnymede, Surrey. It stated that no taxation – or ‘scrutage’ – could be levied on his barons “without the assent of the community of the realm”.
It laid down the principle that the government is subject to the law and answerable to the people. However, the document has almost no force in law today, according to Prof Nick Vincent, a historian of Magna Carta at the University of East Anglia.
Mr Lewis is in charge of Communities Department’s celebrations of the eight hundredth anniversary of the sealing next year.
Drivers stand a good chance of overturning a ticket if they can show the local authority made a technical error in issuing it, such as citing the wrong law, failing to specify precisely where the infraction occurred or not meeting the 28-day deadline for issuing the ticket.
Campaigners have also over-turned tickets issued by CCTV after demonstrating the council did not use an “approved device” to take the footage. An appeal may also succeed if the council cannot show that every frame of the CCTV footage contains a time in hours, minutes and seconds, a date and is sequentially numbered.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/poli...gna-Carta.html
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