OPERATORS TO BE RESPONSIBLE FOR DRIVERS' PARKING OFFENCES?
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FROM OUR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT
E proposal, now being studied by the Home Office, that owners and not drivers of commercial vehicles who commit parking offences should be punished would, II implemented, apply to the whole country and not just to London, where the problem of evasion is serious. The Home Office is actively studying this, among several suggestions made to ease road congestion. If it were decided to act, provision could be made in a future Transport BBL
The whole question of evasion by commercial vehicles came to light in evidence given to a special committee on congestion in London, which reported to the GI.0 last week. There has been, it . appears, much difficulty in getting the names of drivers who commit parking offences from the registered owners of the vehicles. A very large number of offenders are escaping punishment.
The proposal is that breaches of waiting or mt rking restrictions should in future b..:conte the liability of the owner of the commercial vehicle involved, and he woeld have to pay the fine or penalty imposed by the courts.
There could be little technical objection to this, as no question of imprisonment or licence endorsement is involved. If the idea were accepted as a solution in London. it would have to apply to the whole country.
The GLC is expected to put up the idea to the Minister of Transport soon. He will already have heard of it from the Home Office. where experts now have their teeth into it and where officials are assuring that it will not be " put on the shelf ".