This will always be subjective, the bullies and sharks will flout the rules and take advantage and those more reasonable or meeker will suffer, its always been like this and always will be.

Some car users can be a nuisance causing untold misery to others, no better than the thugs which used to clamp indiscriminately and demand money, usually from those least likely to cause them trouble...eg odd how they avoided clamping non members of the caravan club or other untouchables.

Quite agree Andy. private resident parking should be just that, private and for residents. My son had a flat in Sheffield with a similar arrangement. Needed to keep shoppers out. I think the vast majority of the cases of abuse concern private/public parking. The public are encouraged to park on private land for a fee. The abuse is when an extortionate fee is demanded for a small infringement of the contract. Hence, pay when you return for what you have had, Simples.I can't see how that would lead to a parking free for all. Even the most blimkered driver can tell if he is entering a public/private car park or a residential area so the abuse is deliberate and that should attract a hefty penalty.

Cheers Concrete

You'd be surprised at how many non-residents try it on:

• Those using a nearby 'factory shop' when their (free) small car park is full (mainly on the weekend);
• Commuters not wishing to pay the £7 daily fee (or well over £1k pa) for parking in the nearby train station (5 mins walk). Similarly (doesn't affect where I live, but I know it does others, more in council CPZ areas) with people who live near schools, dentists and doctor's surgeries, who never have enough parking for all who turn up;
• Taxi drivers having their lunch/tea break.

This is in addition to:

• Residents knowing they are moving in to a home with X number of allocated (and numbered - so they can only use them) spaces but who have more vehicles than allocated spaces. One resident living in a flat had one allocated space and four vehicles;
• Residents running a business from home with large vans, lorries, etc, taking more space and blocking others and the road, as well as too many;
• Live-in boyfriends/girlfriends and sons/daughters pretending to be visitors so they can get an extra space or two (especially for those living in flats - only one allocated space).

One of the biggest (and growing) problems is people (particularly residents and live-in spouses) using leased or company cars not registered to the home on the development, so a cheap way of finding out who is the owner and persuing them for fines (much more difficult than if they lived on the development) is crutial to the process being viable.

I often have to go shopping in my car on weekdays to avoid my space being taken by others (often visitors) who either can't be bothered to find a suitable visitor space a bit further away or another resident parking an extra car. I'd rather avoid a confrontation that could turn ugly.

That's why I'm not advocating a complete repeal of the current set of laws regarding parking control and use of car's data for such purposes. What doesn't help the situation is that many parking firms seem (in my somewhat limited experience in dealing with them, second-hand) to employ really stupid enforcement 'officers' who don't follow quite basic rules, leading to genuine offenders being let off because of poor/a lack of evidence, as well as people who aren't offending being relentlessly pursued by the management to pay for their flashy lifestyles, some of which are, shall we say, not so legal in their approach (in my opinion).

I do think though that the onus whould be on the parking firm to definitively prove that someone is parking against the rules/illegally, rather than things like the entry/exit camersa, especially if the cannot prove the identity of all vehicles coming and going that look like one they are pursuing.

One thing you do have to wonder is that, for all the huge amounts of money collected in fines from people 'parking against the rules' in retail parks, how come that money never gets spent on resurfacing the car parks? Many nowadays are pothole fests. The one in Stevenage near me is a classic example.