HC Deb 05 December 1962 vol 668 cc1301-3
31. Mr. Gough

asked the Minister of Transport whether he will amend the parking meter regulations to provide facilities for motorists to obtain small change in neighbourhoods where parking meters are installed.

Mr. Marples

No, Sir. I do not think it unreasonable to expect persons who intend to use parking meters to carry the appropriate change.

Mr. Gough

I thank my right hon. Friend for that reply, but is he aware that there is a growing number of people who, when wanting to park their cars but finding that they have no sixpences, have, after going away for just three minutes to get change, returned to find themselves—to use a colloquial expression—"shopped"? This has happened to me. Is it really fair, because of the lack of elasticity in the regulations, for people to be fined 10s. because, on just one occasion, they forget to have a sixpence in their pockets?

Mr. Marples

I am sure that the whole House agrees that my hon. Friend's is a most genuine case, but there are cases which are not genuine. If what my hon. Friend suggests were done, it would be harder to detect meter feeding, of which there is too much already, and it would provide a ready-made excuse for those who seek to avoid payment. I do not include my hon. Friend among those, of course. It would make the regulations difficult to interpret and to enforce.

Perhaps I may tell my hon. Friend that there is on the market a device which can be attached to the ignition key and which conveniently holds sixpences. I will send him one free. I assure my hon. Friend that it is very efficient, unless one's wife happens to take the car out, in which case she will have used all the sixpences and forgotten to replace them.

Mr. John Hall

Will my right hon. Friend include one for me as well? Also, will he consider stopping the continued spread of this very ugly form of street furniture and introduce instead the French carnet system?

Mr. Marples

In London, for which I am responsible, the answer to that question is "No." In the rest of the country, any local authority, including any in my hon. Friend's constituency, may introduce the disc system if it wishes because there is a provision in the Road Traffic Act, 1960, for that purpose. As I have said, the answer in respect of London is "No," but, if we can find a better method for controlling street parking than the meter system or something more in conformity with decent amenity, I shall be very willing to consider it.

Mr. Thorpe

Would it be possible for parking meter attendants to have a stock of change for the convenience of the public, so that larger coins could readily be changed for this purpose?

Mr. Marples

No. I think that the parking attendant has a difficult enough job already and I should hesitate to impose further obligations on him.

Mr. Gough

With the greatest respect to my right hon. Friend, I did put this case to the City of Westminster, which was good enough to tell me that mine was an innocent case. The point I put to my right hon. Friend is that there are many simple people who cannot put their case to the authority. Will he look at the matter again? It is very hard on people with small means if, when they have just parked their cars, they have to go away for three minutes, just as I did, and then come back with coins available only to find that they have a ticket. Moreover, the traffic warden has no right, as the one in my case wanted to do, to use his own common sense in the matter.