Episode 3 Parking Mad

In the UK, someone gets a parking ticket every three seconds.

You can appeal against it.

I will appeal, don't worry.

I think it's disgusting.

HORN HONKS

With more cars than ever on our roads,

the battle over parking has reached boiling point.

Is there any questions you want to ask me now?

How do you sleep at night?

You people, you rob the general public. You're absolute vermin.

Just take your heart out and just leave it at home.

With space at a premium, councils need parking controls.

We've got a board that says,

"Car Park Full," and they drive round it.

Engine's off. Door's open.

She's got a baby and can't even park outside her own bloody house.

I'm going to allow the appeal. You don't have to pay.

Oh, I feel great.

But, for many, parking enforcement is a direct attack on motorists.

It's just about the money.

In my opinion, they are bloodsuckers.

You've got no compassion doing the job that you're doing.

And staff are in the firing line...

"Come back round here and we'll shoot you,"

is the most common thing you'll hear up here.

If you are civilised, you will not tell somebody that, "I hate you."

..as they deal with parking madness.

You might as well just stand here and nick it off of people.

When I say I hate them, I mean I hate them.

Civil Enforcement Officers have been issuing fines to law-breaking

motorists for the past 50 years.

When they first took to the streets, there were just 40 of them.

Now there are nearly 4,000.

You can appeal against it.

I will appeal, don't worry.

Yes, you can appeal and say...

Don't worry, don't worry.

..and say your reason...

A disabled person, and you booked him.

Tenbe is a Civil Enforcement Officer for Sandwell Council

in the West Midlands.

I am delivering. I am delivering chocolate.

You're delivering chocolate?

The reason why I give you a ticket... I issued a ticket

because I stood there for almost five to six minutes.

-I was just getting the order, that's all.

-Right.

She had to tell me what she wanted.

Last year, 6.8 million fines, known as Penalty Charge Notices,

were issued.

You know, they've got me. So I feel horrible.

And, you know, they've just got nothing better to do sometimes.

"We'll just book you for booking sake," I'm afraid.

You've got no way out, have you?

You've just got to try and keep out of their way, basically.

But they are a bane of my life. Definitely.

They get really frustrated

and then they think the only option is to take the ticket

and stick it back to you, maybe either on your hand or your chest.

People calling you names and telling you go back to your country

and all that.

It doesn't upset me as long as I do my job properly.

The majority of parking tickets are paid on time,

but when motorists try to evade them,

they face even tougher enforcement.

Mum of three, Debbie, has been a bailiff for eight years

specialising in the recovery of unpaid parking fines.

So we've got our own ANPR system which can automatically pick

up number plates, so it makes it easier for us on the road than

if they're not at their home address, that we could pick them up.

We've got four cameras, two at the front and two at the back.

It has this funny man, because it's a male thing,

and it goes, "Attention!"

The police are targeting vehicles with no tax or insurance.

Working alongside them,

Debbie's looking for vehicles with unpaid parking tickets.

Morning.

To help her catch them, the bailiff's van is

parked around the corner watching every car that passes.

We've just been picking up cars on the ANPR and it'll flag

if a car is wanted for nonpayment of parking fines.

That's obviously quicker than looking on a list

and we can literally find all the information on a computer

and let our colleague know.

OK, Ben, we're just pulling it in now.

Her partner, Ben, alerts Debbie to a vehicle of interest

and the police stop the driver.

Hi, sir. My name's Debbie, I work for a company called Whyte & Co,

we're certificated bailiffs.

There is an outstanding parking fine on this vehicle.

At the moment, there's an outstanding debt of £517.84 that needs to

be paid immediately.

-On this car?

-Yeah.

-On this very vehicle.

-On this vehicle, yeah.

-I can't pay. I can't pay ticket.

-Then we're going to take the car.

You can't take the car, it's not possible,

because I am 100% sure I have paid the ticket.

Well, sir, the council have sent it over to us,

so as far as we're concerned, it's not been paid.

You either pay it or we're going to take the car.

The choice is yours.

The council's original fine was £130.

But hundreds of pounds have been added by the bailiffs

for their services.

Every letter they send or house visit they make increases the fine.

It's quadrupled the amount this driver now has to pay.

-The ticket you showed to me has been paid.

-Yeah.

What you present to me...

What you present to me is the wrong paper.

Why do you lie? Why do you lie? Why do you lie?

-Sir, I'm not lying.

-You are lying.

-Watch your mouth.

-No, no, no. No, no, don't tell me.

Don't point your finger at me.

-You don't point finger at me.

-Do not shout.

-You told me...

-Do not shout.

I need to shout because...

Bailiff companies are issued warrants of execution,

allowing them to legally remove goods to the value of the debt.

-You are a liar, because you told me.

-You are the problem.

I owe you a ticket on this car... I never owe you a ticket.

And that's the information I was given. Listen to what you're being told.

Why do you present the wrong information to me?

That's the information I was told, sir.

You want to make money for your council.

I don't even know nothing about.

Sir! We're not bullies, we're not thugs.

Yes, we can be a bit hard and harsh about people's situations

and they've got to make their payment, but if they choose not

to pay their parking fines, that's no-one else's fault but their own.

The ticket they are telling me today I need to pay is an old ticket

that has been sorted out and I'm not ready to release this car today.

So I don't know what is going to happen today.

I'm telling you, I'm ready for them.

Motorists can challenge their parking fines at a tribunal.

My name's David Binns, I'm the adjudicator.

You've asked for a hearing,

so this is your opportunity now to provide further information.

The Traffic Penalty Tribunal, or TPT,

is made up of 32 independent adjudicators.

Right, now, which side did you reverse in from?

They travel the country hearing parking appeals.

-Mr Coverdale, sir.

-Take a seat.

-Good morning.

-Morning.

It was not clear to me

that actually, this street, the parking rules did even apply.

-That's where my car was parked.

-Yes.

That's the lamp post next to my car.

-Paying the fine wasn't the problem.

-No, I can see that.

It's just the principle of the thing, you know?

Actually, it's designated as a walkway,

they just neglected to tell anybody.

Apart from that...

-Apart from the three foot high yellow man painted on the ground.

-Right.

Christian Daniels is waiting for his hearing.

What I'm particularly perturbed about is the fact that

I genuinely parked my car, I genuinely paid £2.70 for an hour's

parking, I arrived back there, 59, 60 minutes, to find a vulture

putting a ticket on my windscreen, and I don't think that's right.

Christian runs a water-cooler company in the Northwest

and received a ticket whilst parked in Manchester city centre.

When you pay for a parking ticket for an hour, you expect

exactly an hour, not 59 minutes or, you know, a minute and ten,

you expect exactly an hour.

It's the council, really, that are to blame.

When I sent the appeal in, I asked for a copy of the traffic

warden's notes so I could see, you know, her version of what had

been said and Manchester Council, the nerve, sent me a letter

back saying that I'd need to submit a Freedom of Information request.

A Freedom of Information request for a copy of the traffic

warden's notes.

Unbelievable.

We're not sending rockets to the moon, it's a

parking ticket for 25 quid.

I just think they're purposely being awkward so the motorist will think,

"Oh, I've had enough of this, just pay the £25."

So we've got until quarter to.

The council rejected Christian's appeal,

but he's refusing to give up the fight.

'But it's not just about me, is it? There must be 20 million

'motorists all parking and, you know, if certain people don't stick

'up for what they believe in, the whole country will be in a mess.'

For me, it's about the principle of the fact that you've gave me

a ticket, I shouldn't have it because I've paid,

so we'll have to go all the way then, won't we?

Campaigners across the country are taking a stand against what

they believe are unjust parking charges.

In East London, one group of crusaders have been challenging

council parking enforcements for the past three years.

My NoTo Mob name is Kill Switch.

And mine is Java Bike.

-I'm Coco.

-I'm the Bald Eagle.

Today, the NoTo Mob are targeting a CCTV enforcement

vehicle in Walthamstow.

The camera car is on the lookout for motorists tempted to turn

right at this junction.

No, no, no, no.

A traffic jam like this and then people think, "Oh,

"I can just nip across."

And then of course matey over there, he loves that.

So please go that way, yeah, good man. There we go.

For any cars caught on camera, there's a fine.

Don't turn right,

because there's a camera car back there, he'll give you a ticket.

Someone's finally standing up and saying you can no longer use

the motorists as cash cows. And that's what they're doing.

It's just about the money.

Well, he would give you a ticket for a £130 in the post if

-you turned right.

-Why don't he stand here and do what we do?

He could stand here and prevent these things happening.

Waltham Forest Council deny that raising revenue is a motivation.

They say the CCTV cars ensure motorists

abide by the rules of the road.

We gave intelligence, we find out where their pound is,

where they send them out from.

We go there, then we follow them.

The Mob are made up of retired professionals, IT consultants

and even an ex-diplomat.

I mean, we're actually saving people from getting

unlawful tickets, we believe, and doing a public service.

HORN HONKS

We're just going to ruin their revenue streak.

They're tossers.

HORN HONKS

Even the bus drivers love us.

At the roadside operation, bailiff Debbie

is trying to collect an outstanding parking fine.

But the driver is claiming he's already paid.

Ben, have we got any other information

or are we waiting for the office to load it?

Further checks reveal the original fine has been paid.

Is it on the system yet?

But Debbie uncovers two further unpaid parking tickets that

also carry heavy bailiff charges.

So, unless you're going to pay by

Chip and Pin payment now of £933.68, we're going to take your car.

You're going to do what?

We're going to take the car.

You're going to sell the car?

No, we'll take it and then we'll sell it after five days.

You're going to sell the car?

To avoid losing his car, the owner pays up.

Up to this minute, I've spent almost 9 to £10,000 paying fine tickets.

If you park less than seconds,

before you turn your eye, you see a ticket.

You make some ticketing officer's day. They do it deliberately.

They dodge somewhere and once they see you, you just turn back,

they quickly come and place the ticket on your car.

They are making life miserable for people anyway.

And when I say I hate them, I mean I hate them.

Cross heart, I hate them.

I'm a happy bunny now that I've actually got the payment

and a result and see if we can meet some more happy customers.

SHE CHUCKLES

Away from big cities, councils in small towns and villages tend

to take a more laid-back approach to enforcing parking regulations.

Lyme Regis in Dorset is totally dependent on the summer

tourist trade.

Most tourists arrive by car

and the council is anxious not to put the visitors off.

He's paid the wrong tariff.

He's paid the all-day tariff for a car, £1.70,

but for motor homes...

And it is, it's meant to be £1 an hour.

I won't ticket him just yet. I'll put a warning on him so that if

he comes back in the meantime, he'll see it and hopefully he'll move it.

I think up in London they don't give you a chance, you know?

If you stop on a yellow line and pop in to a shop, you come out,

you've got a parking ticket.

I think it's a bit different down here.

I think we're more laid-back.

We're not vigilantes.

The relaxed attitude and beautiful scenery draw in the crowds.

But Lyme's big problem is there's just not enough space.

There's nowhere, is there?

No, there is absolutely nowhere.

You can't park here, no, you're in a hatched area.

What?

Well, I can see it plain enough.

You can't stand there and reserve a parking bay.

He gets the space. He's here, you're not.

I will go find you another space.

-We just really need this space.

-You won't find one.

-No.

-There isn't one.

There really is, there's a couple down there.

No, there isn't, we've just been up there.

He's there, you're not.

The only reason we're doing it is we have a lame dog in the car.

You're already parked.

You've already had a space.

We have been in here ten minutes.

Guys, we just really need it because of the dog.

I hate things like that. You get dragged in to arguments.

They're fighting over parking spaces.

We've got a board that says, "Car Park Full."

You put it out in the road and they drive round it.

They even look at it when they're going in.

There's not enough parking in Lyme Regis.

When parking tickets are given,

many motorists feel they have been unfairly targeted.

In Manchester, Christian Daniels is appealing his ticket

at the Traffic Penalty Tribunal.

I've come here to put my case across and, you know, if the case

has been that I need to pay the ticket, then I'll pay the ticket.

Hopefully, I'll win

because of the fact that I've done some research and whatnot and

looked into a few cases, so I'll have to go in and see what happens.

Mr Daniels.

Today, his case is being heard by independent adjudicator David Binns.

Perhaps you could just tell me first of all about the...

what exactly you were doing having left the vehicle.

The thing is, I run a small company that installs and maintains

and delivers water-cooler and cups and accessories and whatnot.

Manchester City Council have decided not to send a representative.

-So I didn't know that I was going to make a delivery...

-Right.

..at the time, so I knew that I'd need 20, 25 minutes,

maybe 40 minutes chatting to the customer about

whether they'd want to become a customer or not.

Well, having signed up the customer, what happens then?

Do you then make a delivery?

Yes, what happened then is I checked and I thought, "Oh, I've only

"been here 40 minutes, so we might as well then make the delivery."

When I actually put the ticket in the car, I set my phone alarm

for 55 minutes to make sure that we were still within the time.

The phone alarm's bleeping away when I've got the delivery note signed.

Right.

So I said, "Right, we need to get back downstairs now."

And how far is it back to the car?

Oh, two minutes. Not even two minutes.

Then I said to the traffic warden, "Hey, what's going on?"

And she said "You've got a ticket."

And I said, "It's not expired" There's literally...

I mean, it was very fine, to be fair, it was close,

and I said it hasn't expired.

And I showed her the watch.

Did you see her take the photograph?

Yes, I was stood there.

1517. Obviously the ticket expired at 1512.

And the PCN was printed at 1516.

There is an exemption from these restrictions for loading

and unloading.

Having obtained the order from the customer, you were then

permitted to leave the vehicle beyond the expiry

time of the ticket in order to make the delivery.

And that was what you were doing when the PCN was issued.

For that reason, I'm going to allow your appeal

on the grounds that the contravention did not occur.

OK. Thank you.

So that is the end of the hearing and I will wish you good day.

Don't get me wrong, I'm very,

very happy with the fact that they've cancelled the ticket,

but I don't really feel like justice has been done because I parked

the car, I paid for the ticket and it was still in force.

But what the tribunal have decided is the ticket wasn't in force,

but you were loading.

Well, that saved us 50 quid.

Shall we go and get a pint?

We can get a pint and lunch.

I do enjoy the parking appeals.

This is a part-time role so I do other things as well,

but there's never a dull moment with parking.

With the cost of parking rising in many parts of the country,

motorists are going to extreme lengths to park for free...

Just double check for me.

..by committing Blue Badge fraud.

It's a lady's badge, been issued to a lady.

You're quite clearly not a lady. Expiry date, 26th January 2014.

The person's passed away?

Steve is a Blue Badge investigator for Lambeth Council.

Tell your partner that the badge belongs to her grandmother

and you shouldn't be using it.

In South London, half of all the Blue Badges on display are stolen,

forged or being misused.

The investigation begins with a hunch more than anything,

because there are so many cars with Blue Badges. If I stopped

and tried to deal with every single one, I'd be here for weeks.

Steve's spotted something suspicious.

It's a vehicle that I saw this morning,

it's parked in what we call a hotspot.

It's near the Underground station. It's near the shops.

It's an elderly lady's badge, she was born in 1925.

It's been parked here for a few hours,

so I suspect that it was being misused.

I'm just going to see if I can ring the owner just to see where

they are.

My name is Steve and I work for Lambeth Council

and I deal with your Disabled Badge.

Where is your badge now, though?

Do you have it with... Your daughter has it?

Your daughter has it.

Blue Badges can only be used by the badge holder or by someone

collecting or dropping them off.

I phoned the lady, spoken to her and her daughter's using the badge.

So we've had a Penalty Charge Notice issued

and what we're doing now, we're waiting for a tow truck to come.

The white one. The white one on the end.

When people get a Penalty Charge Notice, then they have a choice

whether to pay it or not.

If the car is towed away, they only have one choice. You go

and pick your car up or it goes and it's crushed.

And it is a very good deterrent.

As the car is lifted up on to the tow truck, the owner returns.

Officers on the front line of enforcement have to be

prepared for any eventuality.

Bailiff Debbie has pulled in another motorist for evading a fine.

This time it's a driving instructor and he's in the middle of a lesson.

Sir, you have got a car registered at an address that you do not

live at.

You are a driving instructor. You must know the rules,

but you have not updated your DVLA,

so you are committing an offence in itself already.

So it makes no difference to me.

You either pay the £1,500 and so many pennies or we're going to

take the car.

Have you got the keys for the vehicle, sir?

Right, this gentleman's got four tickets

and what the problem is here is that he has had his car registered

to an address that he hasn't lived at for three years.

I could look at it that he's done that

so he doesn't pay any of his parking tickets, so at the moment

he's got four tickets that need to be paid in full.

So have you got no way of making the payment, sir?

You're not going to ring anyone to help?

-..Made an arrangement...

-No arrangement.

..to make the payment?

No. Sir, we have been out to your address too many times.

No, but you cannot... What they told you when you get there?

No-one's answered the door, sir, so we're here for full payment.

Well, it's obvious, the house probably is closed.

Sir, you need to make the payment or we're going to do the removal.

To complicate matters,

the instructor was taking his pupil to her driving test.

No, he's going to pay for it, I'm sorry.

-He's going to pay for my

-BLEEP

-test.

I can't cancel it because it's closed.

I'm going to lose my fee now.

The office is closed. I can't cancel it.

Will you stop ignoring me? You're going to have to ring.

That's all my money, you know that, my test fee,

-everything that I paid you, to be honest.

-No.

No, don't tell me no. There's no, no, no, no.

No, no.

The only thing that you paid for is for the test.

No, no, no, you're going to pay me everything, OK?

Do you know how many hours we've lost now standing here?

I was ready for my test today and this is what happens now.

Look at me.

The driver is unable to pay his outstanding parking fines,

so the bailiffs call in a tow truck.

But his day is about to get a lot worse.

In Hertfordshire,

residents of one street think there isn't enough parking enforcement.

Southmill Road in Bishop's Stortford is just a few minutes'

walk to the train station.

Commuters are using the road for free parking.

It's all perfectly legal but it's driving the residents mad.

A fella's just parking his car. He's trying to look nonchalant.

That's definitely a species of commuter, it's a vulgaris.

-What are you filming?

-You.

Yeah, why?

-Because you're parking in my street where I live.

-Oh, right.

And you're off to London on the train

-I expect to earn lots of money.

-Oh, OK.

49-year-old truck driver, Andy,

has lived on Southmill Road for more than 30 years.

And it's really strange that this is the road that's closest to the

station and yet it's one of the only roads that hasn't got parking

restrictions on it.

It costs £7.20 a day to park at the station,

but the car park's half empty.

It's the pin-stripe brigade, you know, it's the pink shirt lot.

It's the guys that want to chase the dollar down in London.

They want to earn big bucks down in London and they don't want to

pay the car park charges so they come and park here.

There's one, he's just getting out the right side.

But suited and booted like that, you know,

he's got to be on 100 grand a year, surely, if not more.

It's just the morality of it.

It's just the fact that people will park outside someone else's house

and cause them great inconvenience and not have a thought.

They haven't got no qualms about it at all.

Someone's got to stick their head above the parapet.

Whether you get labelled as nuts for it or not is here or there,

but somebody has to do something.

In South London, Blue Badge investigator Steve

is removing an illegally parked vehicle.

The owner returns just as the car is put on the truck.

Hello, my name's Steve, Steve Davidson from the council.

Yeah.

Unfortunately, the car is being towed away

-because there's a Blue Badge in it.

-That's my mum's.

It's your mum's. It's not yours.

-What happened is this morning my mum asked me to do an errand for her.

-Yeah.

-Right, and I said to her I'm going to be late for work.

-Right.

Right, because I work in the City.

The bottom line is you shouldn't be using your mum's badge.

No, but she told me. I didn't know that.

-Because I had to do something for her...

-Right.

..and I was going to be late, she told me to park my car.

I don't usually do that.

OK. Now I need to deal with you with this.

Your car's got towed away.

You can't have it back because it's on the tow truck, unfortunately.

You have committed a criminal offence by misusing your mum's

Blue Badge, OK?

Vehicles that are illegally parked get issued a Penalty Charge Notice

by this gentleman, so you're going to have to pay the pound £65.

The cost of that tow truck and the crew is £200.

So you're going to have to pay the pound £265 before they will

release your car.

I was here before you actually put it on there. You could have

left it down.

So I'm going to get a fine, I've got to go and get my car

and still going to get a criminal record.

Is that what you're trying to say to me?

That's not fair. It's not right.

It's not right that you park here this morning

and go to work using your mum's badge.

It's not something that you do every day.

-You have to accept the consequences.

-You've taken my car in front of me.

-Right.

How do you sleep at night, that's the question I want to ask?

Is there any questions you want to ask me now?

How do you sleep at night? Have you got children, have you got a mother, have you got a wife?

-Any other questions you want to ask me?

-No, I'm just asking you one question.

I'm not being rude, but I'm saying how do you sleep at night?

My mum is 89 years old.

OK. We'll move on.

She was clearly frustrated.

She wanted to vent her anger on somebody and it was me

because I was there.

150 miles away in Lyme Regis,

tourists arrive for a day at the seaside.

But there's not enough parking for everyone,

so some motorists have ditched their cars in coach zones...

..on hatched areas...

and on the grass verges.

Even John's lenient approach has its limits.

People do think you get a bonus for every ticket you write,

but you don't. We don't.

We're not told we have to issue X amount of tickets a week.

Nothing like that.

My mum moved down here after my dad died

and we'd been coming down here for about 20 years on holiday.

I love it.

It's just that there's no work, so I do bits and pieces.

Gardening, painting, decorating, selling furniture last year,

but that sort of dried up after a while.

It's a job. You've got to do something.

You know, you've got to pay your bills somehow.

They'll be peeved when they get back.

In Croydon, a driving instructor who owes £1,500 for parking tickets

he failed to pay is about to lose his car.

His student has just missed her driving test.

He can't pay the fine,

so he's emptying his car before it's towed away.

Look, he's got a lot of weapons in there, knives and that.

A screwdriver.

-And a knife.

-There's a screwdriver.

Is he allowed to carry that knife?

There's another screwdriver, and there's a knife.

-Sir, do you want to put that down.

-No, no, no.

Put that back in your pocket, sir.

Put it down. Put it down. Put it down!

As an instructor, is he allowed to carry weapons in a car?

They're...they're tools.

They're not tools, that's a knife.

Are you allowed to carry a knife as an instructor,

for my own safety now?

For car, for electrical.

OK, give me your hand. Give me your hand.

-Wait a minute.

-Give me your hand. Right.

You're under arrest for possession of a pointed, bladed article.

You do not have to say anything, but it may harm your defence...

Stop resisting. Stop resisting.

-He's got his hands...

-Take your hands away.

Take your hands away now.

After eight years of me doing the job, nothing's happened to me,

but obviously today and tomorrow's another day, so who knows?

But the middle son is not... wasn't happy about me doing the job

because he thinks that his mum would be in danger.

Yeah, I was actually scared when the knife came out

and he just pulled it.

But anyway, I'll take my test again and hopefully this time I'll

go for a reliable driving school. The ones that are well-known.

As well as having his car impounded, the driving instructor

received a police caution for possession of a bladed object.

Penalty charges and parking restrictions can be

a frustration for motorists.

But in Bishop's Stortford, it's the lack of restrictions that has

the residents up in arms.

City-bound commuters are monopolising

the spaces in a residential street.

Mother of two Helen

has lived on Southmill Road for the past 15 years.

Helen's armed with posters that the residents hope will tackle

the problem.

See you. Have a nice evening.

We've made up the posters

and we're hoping that they'll be able to put them in the front

and back of their cars so it'll be seen from all angles.

It's a sort of non-aggressive, sort of passive, stand,

just so the commuters know where we're at

and just to remind them that this is a residential area

and hopefully they can remember to park in the station car park

or the town car park or anywhere else rather than Southmill Road.

It does feel a little bit rebellious.

I wasn't allowed to be rebellious when I was young,

so now I'm having my moment.

The protest has attracted the interest of the local paper.

This is just a stand for us, we're just saying please look around

you. There's no off-road parking, please don't take our spaces.

But, yeah, no, it's exciting, it's great,

and hopefully, you know, the council will sit up and take notice.

The residents will have to wait until the morning to see

whether the posters will have any impact.

Squash in on the end for me.

In South London, Lambeth Council are clamping down on motorists

trying to evade parking charges.

Steve and his team have confiscated hundreds of Blue Badges that

have been fraudulently used.

This one is a forged badge. It's a copy badge which was in use.

There's another one that's been through a scanner.

If you look at the hologram, the one on the top shines

and the one on the bottom doesn't.

The one on the bottom is a scanned copy.

Another one here, look, you can see it's an old badge which has been

changed. Somebody's got a felt tip pen and changed 2006 to read 2009.

Changing the expiry date carries a fine of £5,000

and up to five years in prison.

Just repeat it for me so I make sure I've got the right one.

There are some foreign websites, you can buy badges from £250.

Others we've had £100 in pubs, £200.

You know, we see respected members of society who get caught

misusing Blue Badges - doctors, nurses, teachers, police officers.

People are willing to risk a criminal conviction than just

paying a few pounds for parking.

It's 6am and Andy's looking out from his window to see

if the commuters have taken any notice of the posters.

Engine's off, door's open.

Oh, he's looking at the back window of the truck.

Yeah, he's reading the poster.

And he's got a woman with him. She's reading it as well.

There's definitely more spaces along here now.

This is the time of day

when you would expect it to be quite full.

Hopefully the message will sink in and they won't park here again.

Hope springs eternal.

It's a small victory for the residents of Southmill Road,

and they're hopeful the council will soon provide a more permanent solution.

The NoTo Mob are hoping people power will help them

in their own battle over parking enforcement.

Today, they're at a bikers' cafe in Surrey looking for new recruits.

Guys, I don't know if you saw us ride in.

We were the lot that came in with the masks on.

What we're trying to do today by this is to recruit some

people to come out with us, see whether you like it.

And what we do, we follow these cameras around

ensuring that what they do is correct and legal.

We call ourselves Shunters. Scamra Car Hunters.

Shunters.

We saw some the other day, didn't we?

He was standing behind this car like this.

-Yeah, right behind the bushes.

-He's standing right at this one.

No, these might be speed cameras.

We don't do speed cameras.

-Oh, right.

-Because that's...

Oh, CCTV for parking enforcement. Right, OK.

Parking enforcement.

Hiding behind parked cars, lifting the little periscope.

-I thought you weren't allowed to do that.

-Well, exactly.

It's all about empowerment for the people that we see

have been oppressed for a long, long time.

The whole system is rotten, really.

And I think it's the time for everybody to stand up

and be counted.

If you want to join us, you can.

OK, thank you.

The NoTo Mob's message seems to have struck a chord.

What's the point of having a car if you can't park it anywhere?

And you see these little camera cars,

they're parked on double yellow lines theirselves illegally

whilst giving other people tickets for doing the same.

When the signs are sort of not visible

and not correct, I think it's probably good, what they're doing.

But there are a lot of motorists who just blatantly disregard,

you know, no left turn signs and park on zigzags,

so I don't have any sympathy for those people.

Hundreds of bikers have passed through,

but it's not quite the uprising the NoTo Mob had planned for.

Probably about ten people said that they're going to

sign up to the site.

Now, I don't know how many of those people might actually come out shunting.

It's really a suck it and see time.

Lyme Regis is preparing for its biggest day of the year -

the Red Arrows Air Show.

10,000 visitors are expected.

It's one of the busiest weekends for local businesses.

The money we take on Red Arrows day can be the equivalent

to the whole of November, so it's a really key event for us.

We need that boost to keep us going through the winter.

But the town's bumper payday is under threat.

Lyme's biggest car park has been turned into a building site.

Emergency work is under way to save the area's

coastline from crumbling in to the sea.

The works that's been going on here is the last major

phase of coast protection and slope stabilisation works.

Without this phase of the work,

about 240 houses would be lost over the next 50-odd years.

We've taken about 270 spaces in this car park.

Without the spaces, the town could lose hundreds of visitors.

They hope CEOs will give motorists a break.

It is a real problem. It's such a tiny town

and the only way people can really get here is to drive.

And they shouldn't be made to feel unwelcome

because there's not enough car parking.

For local shopkeepers,

there are no signs the CEOs are being more lenient.

You've got lots of double yellow lines, quite narrow roads

and veracious wardens that just want to pick on people to

earn their commission.

Where you get people parking outside to make a quick purchase,

they're obviously going to go elsewhere

if they see one of the suited Taliban around.

£60 fine. £40 if you pay within two weeks.

I know, because I've had them.

In fact, I know people who get them quite a lot.

And you only have to jump out the car for five minutes

and you're in trouble.

And you get a lot of people who get quite hot-headed.

I know there's a lot of honking and stuff and it's a sad way to

start your day or your holiday in Lyme Regis, really.

I'm afraid it's full right up at the moment.

As the big day approaches, some visitors have already had enough.

We're in the area for a week

and we decided to come to Lyme Regis today, yes.

We've been to three car parks.

It's a nice day, it's a

nice town and we were looking forward to enjoying it.

But I think we may have to go somewhere else.

With just three weeks to go until the Red Arrows arrive, there

seems little chance of the building work being finished in time.

Oh, my God.

In London, space is at a premium,

making parking charges the highest in the country.

Councils are taking a harsh line on illegal parking

and today former police officer turned Blue Badge inspector

Steve is patrolling outside a hospital.

I think I'm good at spotting liars.

I interview probably two or three people each day for Blue Badge misuse.

I've heard every single story going.

I enjoy being on street. I enjoy interacting with people.

I enjoy educating people.

And I enjoy prosecuting people, those that deserve it.

Hi there, good morning. My name's Steve Davidson.

-I'm from the parking. I deal with Blue Badges.

-Yeah.

I've just seen you parked in a disabled bay with a badge displayed.

-Yeah.

-Whose badge is it?

My husband. He's in hospital.

-Is he an inpatient?

-Yes.

Why are you using his badge then?

Because I have to pop some things to him, and...

But you've parked in a bay that's designated for a disabled person.

-Your husband's...

-He's a disabled man.

Yeah, but he's in hospital so he doesn't need to use the badge today.

You cannot use your husband's badge to park here

while he's in the hospital.

The offence carries a maximum fine of £1,000

and could lead to a criminal record.

You have committed a criminal offence by misusing.

-Criminal?

-Criminal offence by misusing the badge.

I need to tell you this, it's important. All right.

Now I'm going to tell you that you're going to be

reported for that offence and what that will mean is you will

get a summons and you will have to go before the local

Magistrate's Court to explain to them

why you are misusing your husband's badge today.

And you have to take responsibility for that,

because you're the person that's using it.

-OK.

-OK.

-Done?

OK, I'm done. Thank you very much.

Having a Blue Badge is a lifeline for 86-year-old Kenneth from Bolton.

I need my car as much as anything to visit my wife who has dementia

and has had for something like 14 years.

And I go to the leisure centre for swimming

and I only started to learn to swim when I were 80, you know?

Every parking space has its own unique set of restrictions,

which motorists can find confusing.

Kenneth picked up a penalty charge

when he used his Blue Badge to park in this permit holders bay.

It was at this post.

The back of my car was roughly about here.

There's no yellow lines and they tell me that

because there's a sign up, they don't need to put yellow lines.

So I don't know, it's all a mix up really.

And I think only the traffic wardens can understand them.

There were one old lady had complained about the height of that.

I said all along that I wasn't aware that I were parking illegally.

Kenneth appealed his PCN to the local council,

but they upheld the fine.

In two days' time, his case will be

heard at the Traffic Penalty Tribunal.

Yeah, well, like a dog with a bone, everything I do is thorough

and it just bugs me.

I mean, for a night or two, I don't think I slept.

Yes. I were just worrying of the consequences, really.

£70 for parking there, it's a lot of money.

Having carefully prepared his evidence,

Kenneth is eager to have his say and avoid the penalty.

In the UK, more than a million motorists are being chased

over unpaid parking fines.

Worthing Council have called in bailiffs Debbie

and Ben to recover the debts.

We are on our way to Worthing

and we've got some warrants of execution to find

if there's anybody who has got parking fines that they've not paid.

When the bailiffs' letters are ignored,

they start knocking on doors.

And, at the moment, you have got a debt of £377.44.

How comes it's £377?

Because you've ignored the letters

that have been sent from the council.

But right now I've got £6, £6 to feed my family.

Right.

That's all I've got in my account, is £6.

If you can't pay the full amount, what happens, you take my car?

If not, then we would be looking to come into the house to do

a house removal of your goods.

We'd have to take nearly £3,000 worth of goods.

It's only worth about 10% at public auction.

We've had less people paying over their parking tickets.

Before the recession's hit, people would use their credits cards

and they would have savings and things like that to

pay their parking fines. Where now they're using their credit cards,

savings and any other spare cash they've got on every day living.

So it has got worse.

The cameras have picked up a car in Worthing.

COMPUTER VOICE: Attention!

The bailiffs clamp the car to stop the owner driving

away before the debt is paid.

Sorted.

As soon as that clamp's on, that's going to do a lot of damage when you try driving off there.

We're going to put this all on and then we will go

and knock on the door to see if we can get them to pay.

Let's go and see the happy customer.

It's not that scary but, obviously,

you just don't know what's behind a door.

I wouldn't want to be going in there by myself,

so that's why we work in twos.

-Hi there, sorry to bother you. I'm looking for a Stefan Covax.

-Me.

Is that you? Right then, sir,

bailiffs for Whyte & Co about your nonpayment of parking fine.

And, at the moment, the outstanding debt is that, sir, £351.04.

-You haven't got money, no?

-No cash.

Can you pay by card? Have you got a debit card?

I have, yeah.

After six months of evading the fine, he finally pays up.

Because he's not paid when he had the ticket at £30,

the original price, because he hasn't done that, we've now

had to come out and it's now cost him over £350.

With the fine paid, the car is released.

You'll be surprised, once push comes to shove

and the bailiffs are at your door, I think panic stations happen

and then nine times out of ten people do find the money somewhere.

In Bolton, Kenneth's been having sleepless nights

over his outstanding parking fine.

After months of preparing his evidence

and a six-month wait for his appeal hearing, he finally has news.

They phoned me up to say that the adjudicator had already been

through the notes and came to the conclusion that there's

sort of no case to answer, really.

Kenneth was due to have a hearing at the TPT today.

I'm glad it's turned out how it has done,

but I've not been able to have my say.

I'm sort of keyed up, like a footballer, really,

who's trained all week and then you're on the bench for the match.

Official guidelines state

Blue Badges can't be used in permit bays.

But the adjudicator has let Kenneth off as the legislation is

currently under review.

I'd looked at the papers and I knew that he would technically win,

so if I have a case where the appellant's going to win, then

I don't see any purpose at all in making him come along to a hearing.

To me, they seem to have been playing a game of who can

give in, who can go the longest.

And I was prepared to go to the end.

In East London, the NoTo Mob are preparing for a day out shunting.

It's been six weeks since their recruitment day at the bikers'

cafe and no-one's signed up.

But an unlikely volunteer has found them.

Tracy, nice you could join us.

Welcome to the NoTo Mob. This is Kill Switch, I'm Bald Eagle.

Tracy is a mum of two and a model.

We wear the mask.

I don't think you really need a mask.

It might rain and melt my make-up.

I heard about the NoTo Mob after I received a bus lane

ticket in Hemel Hempstead.

I tried to appeal and it was turned down,

so I sought advice and found the NoTo Mob online.

The NoTo Mob helped to uncover that the bus lane signs were

incorrect, meaning Tracy's fine, along with thousands of others,

was issued illegally.

Hemel Hempstead Council, I think they returned a million pounds or

something that was wrongly fined, so for me to give my time

in exchange for how they've helped me is a definite trade.

Radio test. Who's receiving? Over.

Come on. Getting twitches.

Need to get going.

I can't say I've really ever spent a Saturday with

a load of men on motorbikes, but it's a life experience.

Great to be involved.

Tracy would be a fantastic addition to the NoTo Mob.

I'm sure it's going to be very different from the "hairy biker"

image that we've portrayed in the past.

I'm looking forward to it.

I'm not sure my wife's looking forward to it, by the way.

-It's a no right turn.

-No left turn, sorry.

And all the cars have to go the right way because there's a camera

car down there waiting to catch people coming round the corner.

Can you see the car there?

The silver car.

Well, how is he a deterrent all

the way down there to people from turning left?

He isn't.

He's there to just raise revenue,

to capture people after they turn left here.

No left turn, you'll get fined, there's a car down there.

-I'll get out of your way.

-She's absolutely fine.

She's duck to water, she was there holding her sign.

When pedestrians walked past

and wanted to know what was going on, she explained what we was doing.

Yeah, absolutely fine, really, really good.

HORNS HONK

I think justice should be done in the world

and it's not fair to pick on people that are innocent.

They shouldn't be scared into paying fines that aren't

really enforceable.

It's something I feel passionate about, and as I've been wronged,

I'd like to stop other people from being in the same position.

HORNS HONK

In Lyme Regis, it's the day of the Red Arrows Air Show.

And coastal protection work is still taking up the main car park.

Locals are worried about how they're going to make

room for the thousands of cars flooding into the town.

Get on the back.

CEOs have been deployed to do their best to fit everyone in.

Yeah, go ahead.

Gary, we're full up here at the top at Hombush

and we're going to shut this one down. How is the harbour end doing?

-Over.

-There is still about 14,

1-4 spaces at the far end of Monmouth Beach, over.

Yeah, received. Thank you.

But local businesses are worried vital tourist trade is going

to be turned away.

I haven't got many Royal babies left, have I?

Red Arrows day is really a key flag event because it makes people

come to the town who would not necessarily come on other days.

However, if people can't park, they won't come again.

It's a while before the start of the show,

and John's car park is already full.

Yeah, that'll do.

Now cars are being turned away.

We are completely full, there isn't a space anywhere.

Park and Ride is the best one,

that's up the top of the hill that way.

How long will it be for you at the top of the road?

We've got gridlock here. Over.

As desperate drivers search for a space,

the police are called in for backup.

It's full-up down there, full.

I'm going to go down the road.

-The police will stop you halfway down, I expect.

-Oh, will they?

-Yeah.

They don't read signs either, we've learnt,

so you just let them go because they'll find out in the long run

that you're telling the truth and there is no spaces down there.

There isn't any space, trust me. We're full right up.

We've been driving around for about hour looking for a parking space.

Yeah. Well, you won't find any today. Everywhere is full right up.

But this driver won't take no for an answer.

I'm looking for a silver car,

the one that was just arguing that he'll find a spot.

And they're still shouting at each other, can you hear them?

"You can't park there." There is always one.

-We'll just go back on the grass.

-Oh, all right.

-Don't forget your ticket though.

-No, of course.

Well, it's hot. They've got kids.

You know, a day like today with the Red Arrows, it's very popular

and you have to make exceptions

and use spaces that you normally wouldn't use.

We've managed to park as many as we can,

so there should be some happy punters.

Finally, thousands of people who have managed to park

make their way to the show.

Oyez! Oyez!

The people of Lyme Regis welcome the Red Arrows.

Today's been a good day for business,

lots of people in the town.

A few frayed tempers on the roads, but pretty good.

The traffic Taliban were around this lunchtime. You know,

if they come here one day of the year and do their job, that's fine.

It's pretty incredible.

We've already exceeded our best ever day today, because they've come

so early, so we've been trading since 9 o'clock this morning.

A lot of people come on the bus.

I think a lot of people have used the Park and Ride.

But somehow we have managed to fit them all in.

It's been a real success, yes. We're very pleased.

-Next time...

-HORN BLARES

..the bailiffs get tough.

If you can't get the money, put your hands up and say you can't.

What are you going to do, take my motor and sell it at auction?

Get your money. What happens to me?

..Switching on the gas and sticking me head in the oven.

Motorists fight back.

You have no compassion doing the job you're doing.

Is that what you're doing as a public servant?

And an unlikely parking superhero emerges.

If you ever have a ticket, ring that number.