Park life and constructs regarding the enforcement of local authority off-street car parking. He said that enforcement must be managed through the parking enforcement framework in the Traffic Management Act 2004, and not through contract law under the Protection of Freedoms Act (PoFA) 2012. Let It Be Let me be clear: local authorities may fundamentally rely on contract law to manage parking on their private land. PoFA did not change contract law, but, through Schedule 4, provided a route to the vehicle keeper to recover unpaid charges in defined circumstances.Even the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman recognises this, and says that councils may use contract law to manage parking.* Goodwills edict presumed that all local authority car parking was provided under Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984, section 32. It is acknowledged that much of it is provided in this manner, but, as we all know, local authorities are empowered to provide parking in a manner of different legal contexts: for example, housing law, enables them to provide parking for tenants and visitors; the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 allows them to provide parking facilities at country parks. If, by law, district councils cannot be traffic authorities, can they be bound by PoFA and relevant land provisions when providing parking at leisure centres, for example? It seems incongruous to allow local authorities to manage moving traffic but continue to prevent them from managing stationary traffic in the same way Nowhere Man Moving traffic can, in the main, only be managed using cameras and remote monitoring technologies. By the end of this year, most of Englands urban areas will have enforcement powers to manage moving traffic. It seems incongruous to allow local authorities to manage moving traffic but continue to prevent them from managing stationary traffic in the same way. Michael Gove, Secretary of State at DLUHC, recently wrote to local authorities emphasising the importance and benefits of digitisation. The governments digital and data strategy promotes it too: Digital is recognised in the private sector as the core driver of efficiency, but we are not yet harnessing its potential across the government. Private companies have reduced costs, sped up delivery times and improved user experience by focusing on end-to-end digital transformation of services, using agile, product-centric ways of working and investing in modern technology and systems.** There is a fundamental contradiction between this statement and not allowing local authorities to use camera technologies for parking management in the same way as their commercial counterparts do. Media reports of hordes of visitors descending on tourist hot spots epitomises the scale and impact of antisocial behaviour. Residents are taking to social media channels; MPs and police and crime commissioners are calling for more effective parking enforcement. The opportunity to use camera technology with associated guidance which can ensure enforcement is fair and proportionate will add to the local authority toolkit to better manage increasingly challenging public spaces. Local authorities are highly regulated, politically accountable bodies, and it seems counterintuitive that this restriction in the use of automatic number plate recognition continues to exist. It has negative consequences on the effective and efficient deployment of parking staff. The long and winding road We must exercise goodwill, however, and recognise that, in the current political climate, theres little scope for new legislation to enable local authorities to use camera technology for parking enforcement in any meaningful way. Lets hope there is some goodwill from government too, because it might be possible to demystify the whole scene. How do we introduce common sense without changing the law? What if it was clarified that the original intention of the Goodwill edict was to prevent deregulation of previously regulated public car parks only, and not to impact on parking provided for other legitimate purposes and the alternative legislation? Im certain the Beatles Lovely Rita and her colleagues would rather be out helping folks with parking in the high street, leaving the car parks to tried and tested technology. *bit.ly/PNAug23PL **bit.ly/PNAug23PLL Kelvin Reynolds BPA chief technical services officer and company secretary kelvin.r@britishparking. co.uk 48