Today I received my first parking fine, needless to say I was a little shocked to discover that the current going rate is £50, unless I pay this within 4 weeks it becomes a £100 fine. Considering I incurred this fine when my ticket had expired by 4 minutes whilst on a scooter, a mode of transport commonly used by part time workers, my mind starting thinking about whether this was fair or not!
With minimum pay at £5.25/hr doing a whole day shift (9hrs) to pay a fine seems disproportional, does 4 minutes late really equate to being punished to the tune of a whole days salary, or £12.50 per minute? How can this be addressed, could fines by based on your income, if you had a basic salary of £60,000 a year would you feel cheated paying £250 for being 4 minutes late or £62.50 a minute? Perhaps it could be based on tax bands, with 40% being the full fine amount of £50 and then proportionally weighted down so if you are on 22% then perhaps this could be tiered to £30, who knows…… but the system seems to punish part time workers and those on low pay. Feel free to post your opinion to us especially if you have had similar experiences and could give advice to other temps….
This is absolutely Ludicrous, I totally agree with all fines to be based on a fixed percentage of earnings, rather than a fixed cost.
It is a disgrace the way parking fines are dished out, just another way for the council and governement to take even more hard earned money from us. Have u thought about getting a pedal cycle, no chance of getting a fine and good exercise!!
Further to my article above, an interesting article crossed my desk from Time and Leisure Magazine, in turns out that motorists who commit less serious parking offences like overstaying their time on a meter will pay much less from this month onwards (in London).
People who overstay their time at a meter will pay less than people that park in bus lanes, bus stops, double yellow lines and safety zig-zags.
When in part time worker staying at work for an extra half isn’t unheard of, which is precisly when the traffic wardens strike….. so good news for us, at least we are being put in the same boat as people that cause dangerous and annoying offenses… well done London.