Unfineable Number Plates in London

Reg

Council names and shames foreign super car drivers who flout parking laws

Brazenly pulled up on yellow lines in some of London's most salubrious locations, the wealthy owners of these super cars pay little heed to the rules of the road.




But a council is naming and shaming drivers of foreign-registered vehicles in an attempt to recover nearly 4 million owed in unpaid parking fines.

Westminster Council claims the owners of Bugattis, Ferraris and Lamborghinis routinely flout parking restrictions because they know officials are powerless to trace them in their own countries.

The council, Britain's largest parking authority, accuses the culprits of a "blatant disregard" for the country's road laws by refusing to pay the penalties.

In the past three years, offenders have failed to settle a total of 36,332 parking tickets, leaving the council 3,776,490 pounds out of pocket.

Top of the authority's most wanted list is the owner of a £300,000 Rolls-Royce Phantom, who owes them 2,000 pounds for 18 parking tickets.

While the owner of a Bugatti Veyron L'Edition Centenaire would have lavished 1.2 million on buying their 250mph car, they have failed to pay a 120 pound fine for parking on a single yellow line outside Selfridges.

Despite having the distinctive car registration 111111, the council is also struggling to track the driver of a red and black Bugatti Veyron ticketed this month near Marble Arch. All three cars are on Arabic plates.

Other prolific offenders include owners of a US registered Hummer and a Lamborghini Murcielago from Dubai.

Westminster Council is calling on the Government to help establish a system of international co operation to allow local authorities to trace foreign motorists – 80 per cent of whom refuse to pay fines.

Currently, there are no laws to provide parking authorities with access to overseas driver and vehicle registration data to chase up parking fines.

New EU legislation will allow member states to share such information but experts say British authorities will not be able to use the law because parking offences are not classified as criminal offences in this country.

Cllr Lee Rowley, Westminster Council's cabinet member for parking, said: "British taxpayers can no longer foot the bill for foreign motorists who seem think the rules of this country do not apply to them.

"We would like to see a more rigorous system put in place to hold these drivers to account and send a clear message that this blatant disregard of the law will not be tolerated."

Officials say the problem is most pronounced among vehicles registered in the Middle East, which are frequently seen parked on yellow lines, in bus lanes or in residents' parking bays in expensive parts of the capital.

Many wealthy Arabs have their sports cars flown into Britain by private jet during the so called 'season' in July and August, when it has become fashionable to visit London.

The issue follows complaints, from residents in Knightsbridge over sports car owners shattering their night time peace by racing through the streets around Harrods.

The Daily Telegraph disclosed last week that campaigners claim wealthy Middle Eastern visitors are making residential roads "like the starting grid of Le Mans" since the Qatari royal family purchased the department store in May.

Official figures earlier this year show that owners of foreign registered vehicles evade motoring fines totaling nearly 15 million pounds each year across Britain.

Sparks, a coalition of London councils established to tackle the problem, said 330,000 tickets worth 12.9 million are issued to foreign registered vehicles in London each year for parking and other contraventions. One in eight foreign registered vehicle owners fails to pay their congestion charge.

In June it emerged that foreign diplomats in the capital owe more than 37 million in unpaid congestion charges, parking fines and other motoring penalties.

Last year, Westminster Council wrote off more than 20 million in unpaid parking fines after failing to trace the owners of offending vehicles.

Owners of vehicles on foreign number plates are allowed to drive them temporarily in Britain for a total of six months in any 12 month period without registering them or taxing them in the UK.

After that they must register and tax them with British plates through the DVLA.

Those with number plates bearing letters or numbers not identifiable in Britain must obtain a temporary registration mark from the DVLA for the duration of their visit.






Original article by Murray Wardrop
Published: 7:30AM BST 14 Aug 2010
Telegraph.co.uk

Brussels "Unifies" European Number Plates

Europe's holiday makers are hitting the roads, this summer, with more or less uniform number plates, after a 12 year debate over their design and colour schemes. Belgium finally settled a political argument over the tags in June, removing the last obstacle to introducing the new plates in all 27 European countries.

However, "uniform" is a relative term in Europe, where there are dozens of languages and so ways to even say "number plate". There are already exceptions to the suggested EU standard of black lettering on white background and a European flag on the left. British drivers, of course, being allowed to opt out altogether.

Drivers still show their nationalities on the EU number plates, with a country code placed within the ring of gold stars on the EU flag, or just below it: D for Germany, NL for Netherlands, S for Sweden, E for Spain and so on.

Issuing nations may also allow local or regional symbols.
For motorcycles, there is a square EU-style tag.

American style number plate slogans would probably go against the rules, but
one option might have been "In Varietate Concordia" ("United in Diversity"), the EU motto that is available in Latin and the union's 23 languages, no one opted to take this up, though.

EU officials first recommended uniform black on white plates back in 1998, as they would be more readable and embody the union's single market. The European number plates would also help cameras spot speeders, tax dodgers and vehicles jumping through electronic toll booths in a continent with largely open borders.

Most EU members, and even some non members like Norway, now make EU plates mandatory.

In places like Finland, Sweden, Cyprus, Denmark and Britain however, the number plates are available but optional. In Britain, drivers are entitled to replace the EU flag with those of either England, Scotland or Wales.

Paul Watters, head of public policy at Britain's Automobile Association, said few UK motorists choose the EU flag.

"The government has allowed us to have the freedom to choose to display national flags," he said. "We wouldn't want to see the EU flag become compulsory in the U.K."

France began issuing the EU tag in 2009 and also tried to drop traditional regional indicators, to avoid stigmatizing drivers from less fashionable areas.

Parisian cars mostly carried the number 75, while 93 is the indicator for nearby Seine-Saint-Denis, a Parisian suburb with a large immigrant population.

Richard Mallie from the French "departement" of Bouches du Rhone (regional indicator 13) and 230 other French lawmakers rebelled, insisting the departement number was "a matter of roots, of attachment to an area."

They won the day which means French drivers can now pick any department number they like. Mallie says 75 percent still opt for their departement of residence.

In Belgium, the most ardent proponent of European number plate unification and home to the EU headquarters in Brussels, the EU tag started two years of debate between Dutch and French speaking politicians. The French speakers rejected black on yellow tags as they are the colors of Belgium's Dutch speaking north. Neither side where interested in black on white.

In June, Belgium decided its HGV's would adopt the EU plates, but passenger vehicles could have dark red letters instead of black.

Denmark opted for a black on white EU plate but included a red boarder around it, hinting at its red and white flag.

Europe's shift to standard number plates may sound innocent enough but it is an emotive point.

In the 1990s, EU officials sensed a backlash to what former British Foreign Secretary Douglas Hurd called a "European superstate inveigling its way into every nook and cranny of Europeans' lives." That backlash would be blamed in 2005 for the death of the EU constitution.





Reg

Next DVLA Number Plate Auction

The next DVLA number plate auction is to be held at the Heritage Motor Center, Warwickshire on 4th, 5th and 6th August.

There are some great number plates with low reserves, such as '999 A' at 2900 pounds, '56 ME' at 2700 pounds, and the highly sought after '8 O' at 10,000 pounds, but you can expect to see the latter fetch upwards of five times that amount.

CLICK HERE to view the full auction catalogue.




Reg

Number Plate Advise.

I just wrote this as a reply on a forum then thought, I might as well post it here.
See what you think;

A friend of mine went to a DVLA auction a couple of years back with the intention of buying a ***1 or 1*** number plate.
Within reason, he wasn't fussy about the letter combination as he was thinking in terms of investment/heirloom.

At the auction, he soon realised that he was being out-bid by one man on every '1' plate that came up.

During an interval, the auctioneer approached my friend and explained that his rival was a dealer and suggested that he ask the dealer to 'step aside' on just one of these number plates, so as he could buy it and bugger off. This would leave the dealer with no competition on the rest of the one plates, ergo he could buy them cheaper.

A win/win situation you'd have thought but no.
The dealer refused this proposition and my mate, being a stubborn git, stayed for the duration of the auction just to bid the dealer up on every '1' plate.

When relaying this tale to me, he couldn't grasp the reasoning behind the dealers decision not to step aside as, over the course of the auction, this cost him "10's of thousands".

As I explained to him. It's all about the bigger picture.
It won't matter to the dealer if you beat him up by 1K on every plate at the auction.
(He claims that the most any of them sold for was 8K, BTW)
What's important is that he gets 'control' of as many of this type of number plate as possible that come onto the market.

If you control 80% of a commodity, then you control the open market price of it.
The other 20% are not going to complain if you force the market price up.



Reg

Should East Lancashire councils sell valuable number plates?

CASH strapped town halls have been slammed for refusing to give up number plates worth hundreds of thousands of pounds.

The mayoral car registrations are among the most sought after in the country.

Blackburn with Darwen's plate has been valued at up to 200,000 pounds, while Burnley's would raise 100,000 and Rossendale's 20,000.

Campaigners say keeping these 'egotistical luxuries' is a 'disgrace' at a time when people are struggling to make ends meet.

But defiant councils said they have no plans to cash in despite facing multi million pound spending cuts.

The Lancashire Telegraph has been given three independent valuations for the three high value plates.

Pendle, Hyndburn, Ribble Valley and Lancashire County Council do not have personalised plates.

Top of the pile was CB1, the plate of Blackburn with Darwen's black mayoral BMW, which was valued at between 150 and 200,000 pounds

Councilor Colin Rigby, executive member for resources, said: "There are no plans to sell the number plate.

"Any proceeds would only be a one-off, which might delay savings, but we still need to make ongoing savings year on year."

And Tory Mayor Sheila Williams said: "It might paper over some cracks for a year, but where do you go from there?

"It’s part of the town's history and this would be like selling off the family silver."

Labour opposition group leader Kate Hollern said: "I'm sure people of Blackburn could come up with plenty of things that money could be spent on.

"It would refurbish 10 houses for a start."

And Lib Dem deputy mayor Karimeh Foster said people would want the plates, which date back to 1904, sold if it helped protect front line services.

Mary Anderson, who is leading the fight to save Shadsworth Community Centre, said she was stunned at the value of the Blackburn with Darwen number plate.

She said: "It is a disgrace. This is the exact amount they are saving from the four community centres. The public needs to be aware of this."

Burnley council's HG1 plate is worth 100,000 pounds, according to all three companies.

It was taken from a fire engine in the 1930s when the council was also responsible for the fire service.

Council leader Charlie Briggs said the town hall had once tried to sell the plate to former Opportunity Knocks host Hughie Green.

He said: "He wouldn't have it. I knew then it was worth a considerable amount of money, but I didn't realise it was worth that much.

"But why would we want to sell it? It's part of Burnley.

"When you see HG1 coming you know the mayor's inside the car.

"If we're talking about selling the family silver that would really be scraping the bottom of the barrel."

Burnley businessman Andrew Brown, who ran as an independent candidate in this year's General Election, said the council should sell the registration plates because of the cuts it was facing.

He said: "It would make sense for the council to put it up for sale with a reserve price of 100,000 pounds if that is what it is valued at.

"If the reserve is met then everyone is happy."

Rossendale council's 1MTC plate was valued at 20,000 pounds.

The council said it was not certain where it had come from, although it is believed to have been donated to the authority in 1971.

Again bosses did not want to sell.

Mark Wallace, of the Taxpayers' Alliance, said: "It's disgusting that councils are hanging on to these egotistical luxuries at a time when taxpayers are struggling to make ends meet.

"Councils facing spending cuts should be selling these private plates as soon as possible."





Reg

Emerates '1' number plate at auction

The world's most expensive number plate purchase.







Reg