Private car park companies have been given the freedom to impose severe penalty charges on motorists following a landmark court ruling that could have widespread repercussions.
Companies have been given the green light by the Supreme Court to impose extra, punitive penalties to boost profits as well as to simply recover costs.
The judgement came in a case brought by Barry Beavis of Essex, who fought a battle over an £85 charge for overstaying in a parking space. He argued the charge imposed by ParkingEye for the 56 minute stay was excessive and did not reflect their costs.
Judges dismissed the claim and concluded that the company – Britain’s biggest private parking operator – had a ‘legitimate interest’ in charging over-staying motorists.
This ‘extended beyond the recovery of any loss’ the judges found, adding that ParkingEye’s charge was reasonable to ‘encourage the prompt turnover of parking spaces and also to fund its own business activity and make a profit’.
The judges did say such companies could not charge what they liked but that £85 was not out of all proportion.
Steve Gooding, director of the RAC Foundation and former director-general of roads at the Department for Transport, said: ‘This opens the door for parking companies to increase their penalty demands and leaves the onus on motorists to fight sky-high charges on a case-by-case basis.
‘The last hope for motorists is that parliament will now do what it should have done back in 2012, when it outlawed clamping on private land and set a reasonable limit for these charges.’
The ramifications could be wider than just parking with the ruling potentially opening up the possibility of people being fined for a range of other issues including missing dental appointments, campaigners say.
