Transport Act 1968

127 Amendment of provisions as to parking places

(1) After section 35(1) of the principal Act (which enables orders to be made designating parking places on highways for vehicles or vehicles of any class specified in the order and authorises the making by the local authority of charges for vehicles left in any parking place so designated) there shall be inserted the following subsection:—

“(1A) Any order under this section, whether made under subsection (1) above or under subsection (5) below, may designate any parking place for use, either at all times or at times specified in the order, only by such persons or vehicles, or such persons or vehicles of any class specified in the order, as may be authorised for the purpose by a permit from the authority operating the parking place; and that authority may, in the case of any particular parking place and any particular vehicle, or any vehicle of a particular class, instead of making a charge as mentioned in the said subsection (1) or (5), issue a permit for that vehicle to be left in that parking place while the permit remains in force either at all times or at such times as may be specified in the permit and make such charge in connection with the issue or use of that permit of such amount payable in such manner as the authority by whom the designation order was made may by order prescribe; but no charge shall be made by virtue of this subsection in respect of a public service vehicle.”

(2) In section 36(2) of the principal Act (which specifies certain matters which may be included in orders making provision for or in connection with the operation of parking places designated under the said section 35) at the end there shall be added the following paragraphs:—

“(i) for regulating the grant, revocation and surrender of any permit such as is mentioned in section 35(1A) of this Act and the issue, use and surrender of tokens indicating the holding of such a permit or the payment of any charge in connection with the issue or use of the permit, for requiring a vehicle to which such a permit applies to display the permit or such a token when left in any parking place to which the permit applies, and for treating the display of or failure to display the permit or such a token on any vehicle left at a parking place as evidence, and in Scotland sufficient evidence, of such facts as may be provided by the order;

(j) for the refund in such circumstances and in such manner as may be prescribed by the order of the amount of any charge paid in advance by virtue of the said section 35(1A).”

(3) In section 37 of the principal Act, after subsection (5) (which relates to the inspection and testing of parking meters) there shall be added the following subsection:—

“(6) Where provision is made for the use of apparatus other than parking meters, subsection (5) above shall apply to such apparatus as it applies to a parking meter.”

(4) In section 42(1)(a) of the principal Act (which imposes a penalty for leaving a vehicle in a parking place designated by an order under the said section 35 otherwise than as authorised by an order relating to the parking place) after the words "authorised by" there shall be inserted the words " or under ".

(5) After section 42(4) of the principal Act there shall be inserted the following subsection:—

“(4A) Where, in the case of any vehicle with respect to which there has been issued any authorisation by way of such a certificate, other means of identification or device as is referred to in section 1(3C) or (3D) or section 6(5) or (6) or such a permit or token as is referred to in section 36(2)(i) of this Act, the authority by whom any parking place designated by a designation order is controlled is satisfied that, in accordance with the terms on which the authorisation was issued, a charge has become payable and has not been paid in respect of any period for which that vehicle has been left in that parking place, acceptance by that authority of payment of the amount of that charge shall be a bar to proceedings for an offence under subsection (1)(a) above of failing duly to pay the charge.”

(6) In section 44(3) of the principal Act (which sets out the purposes for which the Greater London Council or any other local authority may apply any surplus in the account of their income and expenditure in respect of parking places designated under section 35 of that Act) at the end there shall be added the following paragraph:—

“(d) if it appears to the local authority that the provision in their area of further parking accommodation for vehicles otherwise than on highways is for the time being unnecessary or undesirable, the following purposes, namely—

(i) meeting costs incurred, whether by the local authority or by some other person, in the provision or operation of, or of facilities for, public passenger transport services;

(ii) purposes of a project connected with the carrying out by the appropriate highway authority (whether or not the local authority) of any operation which within the meaning of the [1959 c. 25.] Highways Act 1959 constitutes the improvement of a highway in the local authority's area or, in the case of an authority in Scotland, of any work or operation on any highway in the local authority's area which is authorised by any of the enactments specified in subsection (3A) below.”

(7) After the said section 44(3) there shall be inserted the following subsection:—

“(3A) The enactments referred to in subsection (3)(d)(ii) above are—

(a) sections LXXXIV, LXXXV, XCIV and C of Schedule C to the [1878 c. 51.] Roads and Bridges (Scotland) Act 1878;

(b) section 130 of the [1892 c. 55.] Burgh Police (Scotland) Act 1892;

(c) section 8(5) of the [1909 c. 47.] Development and Road Improvement Funds Act 1909 ;

(d) section 58 of the [1930 c. 43.] Road Traffic Act 1930;

(e) section 4 of the [1935 c. 47.] Restriction of Ribbon Development Act 1935 ;

(f) section 3(2) of the [1946 c. 30.] Trunk Roads Act 1946 ;

(g) the [1950 c. 24.] Highways (Provision of Cattle Grids) Act 1950;

(h) section 45 of the [1956 c. 67.] Road Traffic Act 1956.”

(8) In section 85(2)(c)(ii) of the principal Act (under which, where the driver of a vehicle is alleged to be guilty of an offence against section 42 of that Act in connection with a parking place, the owner of the vehicle must give such information as to the identity of the driver as may be required, in writing, by or on behalf of the local authority for that parking place) after the word " offence " there shall be inserted the words " under section 31(3) or ".

(9) In section 86(1) (which relates to the forgery of, and certain other offences in connection with, a ticket issued by a parking meter)—

(a) in paragraph (a), after the words "meter, or" there shall be inserted the words " any authorisation by way of such a certificate, other means of identification or device as is referred to in section 1(3C) or (3D) or section 6(5) or (6) or such a permit or token as is referred to in section 36(2)(i) of this Act, or ";

(b) in paragraph (b), after the words " such ticket" there shall be inserted the words " or authorisation ".

(10) At the end of the said section 86, there shall be added the following subsections:—

“(3) A person who knowingly makes a false statement for the purpose of procuring the grant or issue to himself or any other person of any such authorisation as aforesaid shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding £100 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding four months or to both such fine and such imprisonment.

(4) If any person authorised in that behalf by or under a designation order has reasonable cause to believe that a document or article carried on a vehicle or by the driver or person in charge thereof is a document or article in relation to which an offence has been committed under subsection (1) above (so far as that subsection relates to such authorisations as are referred to in that subsection) or under subsection (3) above, he may detain that document or article and may for that purpose require the driver or person in charge of the vehicle to deliver up the document or article ; and if the driver or person in charge of the vehicle fails to comply with that requirement he shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding £50.

(5) When a document or article has been detained under subsection (4) above and at any time after the expiration of six months from the date when that detention began no person has been charged since that date with an offence in relation to the document or article under subsection (1) or (3) above, and the document or article has not been returned to the person to whom the authorisation in question was issued or to the person who at that date was the driver or person in charge of the vehicle, then, on an application made for the purpose to a magistrates' court (or, in Scotland, on a summary application made for the purpose to the sheriff court) by one of the following persons, namely, the person to whom the authorisation was issued, the person who at the said date was the driver or person in charge of the vehicle, or the person for the time being having possession of the document or article, the court shall make such order respecting disposal of the document or article and award such costs (or, in Scotland, expenses) as the justice of the case may require”.

(11) So much of section 97(2) of the principal Act as limits the extent to which section 42 of that Act is to apply to vehicles and persons in the public service of the Crown shall cease to have effect.

(12) Section 26 of the [1967 c. xx.] Greater London Council (General Powers) Act 1967 (which makes in the enactments re-enacted by sections 35 and 36 of the principal Act and in sections 233, 235 and 237 of the Act of 1960 amendments as respects Greater London for purposes similar to those of subsections (1), (2), (9) and (10) of this section) shall cease to have effect.