A woman from the West Flemish city of Bruges was issued with a parking fine, while she was on her way from her car to pay at a parking meter. The woman, whose first name is Leen, contacted the VRT’s consumer affairs programme ‘De Inspecteur’ to ask whether the fine is justified and valid. Leen told ‘De Inspecteur’ that “I received a letter containing a fine. Apparently, a numberplate scan vehicle had driven past just before I’d paid. Is the fine valid? I thought that you are given 10 minutes’ grace”.
Can you be issued with a parking fine while you are on your way to the parking meter to pay?
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Leen added that "I don’t think that I am the only person that has experienced this.”
‘De Inspecteur’ examined the issue and looked into whether or not motorists are indeed given a certain amount time after having parked up to pay for their parking space.
Municipal authorities set the rules
The CEO of Parkeren.be, a company that manages and operates parking in many municipalities across Belgium, Peter Lamens told the VRT that “Each municipality has its own parking policy, and this defines how long you can park and whether and how much you have to pay to do so.”
Normally, motorists are given between 5 and 15 minutes’ grace after having parked up to give them time to pay. However, in most cases municipal authorities don’t say how long a motorist has to pay for their parking space so as to prevent motorists from parking up and popping in to a shop quickly without paying for their parking space;
"People could take a gamble that the scanning vehicle won’t drive past and then go and pay quickly if it did come. Normally between 5 and 15 minutes’ grace is given, so you really do have enough time to go and pay”, Peter Lamens
Scanning vehicle
Some local authorities no longer have traffic wardens, but instead deploy vehicles that scan numberplates and can detect whether the driver of a vehicle has paid for parking.
"These vehicles have cameras that are equipped with Number Plate Recognition (NPR). In a millisecond the numberplates that are scanned by the NPR vehicle are checked against a database containing the details of those that have paid for parking both at a parking meter and via text message or WhatsApp. A list is drawn up of those that haven’t paid and they are issued with a parking fine”.
Peter Lamens added "We realise that some people might be about to pay when our vehicle drives past. So, each evening the list containing the numberplate details of those that hadn’t (yet) paid is put aside the day’s payment data. If, for example, a municipality gives motorists 10 minutes grace to allow them to pay, they are not issued with a parking fine on condition that they have paid within 10 minutes of the scan vehicle having passed”.
Sometimes people living with a disability also have to pay for parking
Peter Lamens went on to dispel the misconception that people that live with a disability never have to pay for parking. This varies from municipality to municipality.
Furthermore, Parkeren.be doesn’t know who has a special card indicating that they are disabled and the card isn’t numberplate-specific anyway.
Anyone that believes that they have been wrongly issued with a fine is advised to react as quickly as possible in order to rectify the situation.
Data protection
The parking management companies are subject to GDPR legislation. Three photos of the vehicles of those that have been issued with parking fines are kept until the fine has been paid. After that the photos are deleted. The lion’s share of the money from fines goes to the municipal authorities. Parking management companies such as parking.be retain a small cut to cover their expenses and to ensure that they remain profitable.