TWO years after promising action against private parking companies targetting drivers with punitive charges, Environment Minister Mark H Durkan has appeared to roll back on promises he and his predecessor made.
In May 2013, then minister Alex Attwood pledged to produce advice for drivers facing fines for parking in shopping centre car parks.
This was to be in the form of posters clearly stating the rights of drivers who receive "charges" in the post from private companies for spending just a few minutes over an allotted time while doing errands.
The Irish News was inundated with calls following a story revealing how personal data, supplied to the government for road tax and registration purposes, has been used by private companies to extract parking fees.
Readers complained of being hounded by firms demanding "punitive" parking fees of up to £140 for just 10 minutes in supermarket car parks across the north.
The department's legal officer was said to be in the process of drafting public notices "to be distributed within weeks", aimed at helping those who receive threatening letters for parking on private land.
Mr Attwood also vowed to ask for the DVA's work to be fully devolved to Northern Ireland and only release driver details to companies with an acceptable code of conduct
When Mr Durkan took on the role that same year, he pledged to see his predecessor's promise through.
However, when challenged by Sinn Féin's Phil Flanagan in the assembly about his failure to do so, there was a marked difference in the tone of the minister's comments.
Mr Durkan said his department's "very limited role in relation to this issue... ceased completely" when vehicle registration and licensing was centralised in Swansea last year.
"My department has no access to the DVLA system to monitor or resolve issues relating to Northern Ireland motorists," he said, recommending "any specific issues" be "raised directly with the DVLA".
"Both I and my predecessor have previously raised concerns about the practices of some car parking companies, in particular, inadequacy of signage detailing parking time limits and penalties, penalty demands, threats of legal action and the absence of an appeal mechanism in Northern Ireland.
"Despite this, I have received no satisfactory assurances and I must reiterate that my department has no locus to control the policies or prices of private car parks."
Mr Durkan made no mention of the 2013 pledge on notices.
Mr Flanagan said the "empty promises made by these two ministers typify stunt politics with nothing by way of action to back it up".
"It now transpires that these promises amounted to nothing and the public were misled by two separate ministers," he said
"These private car park operators act in a completely unethical manner and action should have been taken by Alex Attwood or Mark H Durkan during the time when they had the authority to address it in some way."
