One tends to associate the ‘NO PARKING’ sign with commercial and public sector property. Somehow, general perception has the impression that the private property owner does not have to be so formal.

We consider this view to be fundamentally erroneous. Why?

It is easy to understand why the wider public thinks that the ‘NO PARKING’ sign is more or less monopolistically the province of ‘big business.’ True, corporations have the power and the authority that flow from strength in numbers and big money leverage to be formal and punitive in regard to preventing misuse of property that belongs to shareholders behind the veil of incorporation.

Unfortunately, we in the parking control business know that this situation is widely misused by a significant minority of the motoring public.

The reason is easy to understand. The cost of permitted and legal parking is high. Local authorities, parking companies such as NCP and private companies that allow persons other than staff and customers to use their premises for a fee do tend to charge a great deal.

Indeed, part of the motoring worries of many professional and amateur drivers is to do with the difficulty of getting and/or paying for parking.

The (obvious?) temptation is to park without permission on a private individual’s property in the pious hope that evil consequences will not follow. Regrettably, this turns out to be the case so many instances.

The legal systems in so many countries have mechanisms whereby if somebody does something with impunity for long enough then he/she gets the ‘right’ to do that reinforced by the law. English and Welsh law is technically bound by the ‘time immemorial’ doctrine that takes the start of the reign of Richard I as the dividing line.

In practice, however, courts will recognise much shorter periods of time.

Allowing a third party to do something without permission subtracts from property value and the right of the owner to do as he likes with his own within the general law land.

Therefore, for this reason alone, amongst so many others, we advocate the use of the ‘NO PARKING’ sign for the humble private property owner.

If you reside in an urban environment this applies more than if it is a rural place.