How to prevent unauthorised parking and abuse in your car park

It may surprise you to know that if you’re having problems with unauthorised parking then getting in touch with the police or your local authority often proves fruitless, because parking on private land is not considered an offence, it’s a civil matter. The police do not have resource or the power to deal with most issues like this, while local authorities only have the ability to stop unauthorised parking if it occurs on a car park that’s covered by relevant by-laws or is a health and safety risk.

Additionally, as of 2012, threatening to clamp the wheels of improperly parked vehicles is no longer an option. The Act of Parliament, The Protection of Freedoms Act states “makes a number of changes to the law related to parking on private land. It bans vehicle immobilisation and/or removal without lawful authority, and provides private landholders with additional powers to pursue the registered keeper of a vehicle for unpaid parking charges providing certain conditions are met.”

As a result of this legislation, those businesses who actually adhere to it may find that they have greater difficulties with preventing misuse. Clamping on private land is illegal in England, Wales and Scotland (where it hasn’t been legal since ’92): so, you can’t rely on the authorities because of this.

Automated number plate recognition (ANPR)

From security concerns to ticket fraud, ANPR can benefit your car park if it’s being misused. As a means of improving a site’s security, it can keep tabs on your site 24 hours a day, recording footage of everyone that comes and goes at all times. This makes the technology extremely helpful in criminal cases, providing valuable evidence and information that can be used later in an investigation if needed.

It can also serve to lessen the administrative strain on car park owners. Instead of employees having to deal with handling, managing and challenging complaints, ANPR does this for you, providing inarguable proof when the time comes to make a case against unauthorised users, without the financial drain it would typically take to deal with such issues.

By keeping track of who enters and exits the site, the technology that ANPR deploys matches each vehicles’ number with its own records, determining which motorists are legitimate and if appropriate whether they’ve paid. This serves to combat any loss in revenue generation your car may be falling prey to.

Keeping your car park secure

Without the appropriate security and enforcement, car parks suited to all kinds of different sectors leave themselves open to abuse in a big way. If you’re a retailer, then the lack of safety could mean a significant loss in footfall. For those you work with meanwhile, an unsafe site risks the security of your employees and their belongings on a daily basis. Safety is critical and should be prioritised by all business owners.

We work alongside our clients to achieve the Safer Parking Scheme’s ParkMark status on their site. A symbol of safe and secure parking in the UK, ParkMark strengthens the security of car parks through police assessments of all aspects of the site, from lighting, accessibility and lines of sight to the presence of crime prevention and detection technology.