Euro Car Parks issued a £100 parking charge notice to Jane Winder in November 2023. Winder appealed by sending a bank statement and photo of her parking ticket to the company, but Euro Car Parks rejected the appeal and asked her to pay a £20 administration fee. Over the next 14 months, she received letters from five different debt collection agencies demanding £170, and in June 2025, Preston Combined Court Centre contacted her stating Euro Car Parks had filed a court claim for £278. The outcome of her court hearing has not been confirmed.
Euro Car Parks manages over 3,000 car parks across the UK and Ireland, and uses automatic number plate recognition technology to issue parking charge notices. The company was fined £473,000 by the UK's Competition and Markets Authority for failing to hand over information. Parking charge notices issued by Euro Car Parks were the second most-appealed fines in 2023 and 2024, with 12,000 appeals in 2023 and 15,000 in 2024.
Private parking firms issued a record 14.4 million tickets in the 12 months to March 2025, more than double the 6.8 million issued six years ago in 2018-19. A Which? expert said appeals can be made if signs are unclear, the charge exceeds £100, or there are mitigating reasons like ill health or vehicle breakdown. The expert also noted that if the parking company is not part of an accredited trade association like the BPA or IPC, motorists can ignore the fine. For BPA members, appeals can be made to POPLA within 28 days of rejection, while for IPC members, appeals go to the Independent Appeals Service within 21 days.
Parking that obstructs a dropped kerb can result in a Penalty Charge Notice of £70 to £130, and the Highway Code warns against parking where kerbs are lowered for wheelchair users or vehicle access. Enforcement bodies say parking adjacent to a dropped kerb can cause considerable inconvenience and is actively enforced, though there is no UK-wide law limiting the number of vehicles on a private driveway.
Waitrose in Romsey introduced Britannia Parking in December, replacing free two-hour parking with ANPR systems and external wardens, and shoppers have been issued fines of up to £100 for overstaying the limit. A Waitrose staff member said the store could no longer afford to run the barrier and it was cheaper to employ Britannia, and John Lewis Partnership revised the maximum stay to ensure parking availability for all customers.
Supermarket car parks are private land with rules enforced by private companies via Parking Charge Notices of £40 to £100, and many use ANPR cameras to enforce rules. Parking in a supermarket car park outside opening hours can result in a fine of up to £100.
Motorhome and campervan owners could face £70 fines and towing for violating new overnight parking restrictions in UK holiday hotspots, and searches for motorhome parks have increased by 9,000% in the past month.