Motoring journalist Steve Fowler has launched a scathing attack on the Government's treatment of drivers, claiming motorists are being "bashed" repeatedly with excessive parking fines.Speaking on GB News, Fowler described the situation as "frankly ridiculous" as plans emerge to increase parking penalties outside London to more than £120.READ THE FULL STORY HERE
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00:00joining me. It's a very simple question. What the hell is going on?
00:04Yeah, I'm almost tempted to say what the hell just happened, but I'm much happier talking about
00:08Eurovision. It's much happier. Oh, not again. I mean, us poor motorists every time. Wouldn't
00:15it be lovely? I love coming on GB News. It'd be lovely to hear from the government saying,
00:20we're going to do something for motorists, but no, bash, bash, bash every time. And this is,
00:26frankly, ridiculous. I mean, they're trying to encourage people to get back into town centres,
00:31to get out there, to go shopping, to support businesses. And yet, if we stay for a little
00:36bit longer than we anticipated, and we haven't paid the right amount for the parking, we're going to
00:41get stung with a fine that, as you quite rightly said, is greater than somebody committing criminal
00:47damage. This is criminal damage, as far as I'm concerned, as far as what the government's doing
00:51to motorists. Exactly. As I understand it at present, parking tickets issued by councils
00:56are capped at £60 or £70 outside of London, depending on the category of fine. And most
01:01councils will offer you, you know, if you pay up quicker, you'll get a lower fine. But the
01:07Department of Transport is not ruling out increasing that to more than £120 for local
01:13authorities outside of London. And this is coming from the Local Government Association and the
01:19British Parking Association. Now, Steve, we're reassured constantly that there isn't a war on
01:23the motorists. But this does seem to be like motorists are being forced to pay for everything
01:28that local councils are doing wrong. Yeah, I think you're absolutely right. And there most
01:32definitely does seem to be a war on the motorists, whether it's congestion charges that are supposed
01:38to reduce congestion in town centres, and it certainly doesn't, to parking permits, every single
01:45opportunity to just squeeze a little bit more cash out of the motorists. These are law-abiding
01:50citizens, people who might just, as I say, overstay their parking by 10 or 15 minutes because they're
01:57doing something, they're supporting a local business. Yeah, they're going to be stung once
02:01again. And, you know, frankly, maybe we should take a leaf out of the French book and just start
02:06blockading things or whatever. You know, we take it on the chin a little bit too much as motorists,
02:12and maybe we shouldn't. Unfortunately, we've got a little while before we can take it out of the
02:16ballot box. Well, actually, yeah, Steve, actually that's a very good point. The French would be up
02:19in arms of having a riot and going on strike, wouldn't they, about this? But we're terribly
02:22British and we go, OK, right, OK, well, let's just pay up. But I mean, this is basically, I mean,
02:27we know that many, many local councils have not handled their budgets well in any way, shape or form.
02:33We've got several bankrupt councils around the country at the moment. So this is just, it's nothing to do
02:39with a green issue of reducing pollution or reducing traffic flow. It's all about making money,
02:47isn't it? Yeah, it's what you said, bad budget management. You know, if some of these councils
02:51manage their budgets better, then they wouldn't have to go looking for extra cash and normally
02:56from the motorists. Yeah, maybe we do need it. And I should have to say this, and it may be
03:01controversial. Maybe we need our own Elon Musk to go in there and get rid of the waste, save the cash
03:06that is being thrown down the drain in local councils on silly little programs because they
03:12could just do that, waste money and then go to the motorist and say, we're going to charge you a
03:15little bit more now for five minutes over staying in your parking. It's just not good enough and
03:21frankly not fair. You know, let's say the fact that I could be a shoplifter or I could tear the
03:26wing mirror off a car, not that I would obviously, but I'm going to find less than if I stay 15 minutes
03:32too long in a parking space. That doesn't make any sense whatsoever. And obviously it's very easy
03:36to target someone who's parked sort of like, you know, and not pay for the full amount because
03:41they're maybe two minutes over the limit or something. But meanwhile, we're letting shoplifters,
03:44I mean, proper criminals going to shops and walk out with, you know, 200, 300, 400, 500 pounds
03:50of goods and we're not doing anything about it. Yeah, I think you're absolutely right. I mean,
03:54everybody's blood will be boiling at this. It's absolutely outrageous. Wouldn't it be great
03:59if local councils say, come to your town centres, park for free, come and use the shops.
04:05You know, we all want to do that. We want to support local businesses, but it's certainly
04:10where I live in the neck of the woods where I am. People are frightened to go and park for fear of
04:14getting a big ticket and people do just pay it. I mean, I would always argue the toss just to try
04:19and delay the payment and make it awkward for people. But, you know, you get the thing through.
04:24It's very formal. For a lot of people, it's very worrying. They feel like criminals and all they've
04:28done is just outstay their welcome truce in the car park. But, you know, let's put it this way.
04:34It's certainly not a vote winner. We've just had the local council elections, haven't we, in many
04:38places. So no surprise. The bad news comes after that. Yeah. Well, yeah. Timing. It's all in the
04:43timing. Steve, thank you so much. That's that motoring journalist Steve.