Council rangers forced to stop issuing ticketless parking fines

Councils will be forced to go back to leaving a note - or a sticker - when stinging motorists for illegal parking.

Sneaky councils will be banned from issuing ticketless parking fines, in a move to stop unsuspecting drivers getting stung without any chance of disputing the penalty.

In a win for motorists and common sense, Finance Minister Courtney Houssos will legislate to effectively ban ticketless parking fines, after greedy councils raked in in $155 million via the fines last year.

It comes after The Daily Telegraph revealed an explosion in councils issuing ticketless parking fines, despite being ordered to stop the practice.

Ms Houssos will introduce legislation this month requiring parking rangers to attach an “on-the-spot notification” to a car which gets a fine. This could be in the form of a sticker or a traditional parking ticket.

Repeat fines for the same offence will also be invalidated.

The Minns government has moved to make ticketless parking fines a thing of the past. Pictures: News Corp

Councils issued 822,310 ticketless parking fines last financial year, up almost 50 per cent from the year before.

Ticketless parking fines were first introduced under former Premier Gladys Berejiklian in 2020.

Ms Houssos said forcing councils to leave a note telling drivers they had been fined was a victory for common sense.

Finance Minister Courtney Houssos said ticketless parking fines do not pass the “common sense test”. Picture:NewsWire/ Monique Harmer

“No one ever likes to get a parking fine, but the idea you only find out about a fine weeks later doesn’t pass the common sense test,” she said.

“Frustration among drivers and community members about the ticketless parking system is high – and that’s fair enough. The ticketless parking fine system was introduced by the previous government without regard for the impact on drivers and families,” she said.

NSW Premier Chris Minns also backed the move.

“Drivers deserve better than the current system,” he said.

Councils have argued that allowing rangers to issue fines without leaving a ticket is measure to increase safety of their workforce.

Councils had been raking in the cash from ticketless fines. Picture: NCA NewsWire

In certain limited circumstances, rangers will be able to issue a fine without leaving a ticket - but only if they install newwarning signs. That could include areas where there is no phone reception, like national parks, or in timed enclosed car parks.

The NRMA has long been advocating for the ticketless fine system to be scrapped.

Spokesman Peter Khoury said the government’s changes will rebuild public confidence.

Concreter Phillip Fogolin, from Fogolin and Son Concreting, labelled ticketless parking fines a council “cash grab”. Picture: Rohan Kelly

“Ticketless parking fines removed transparency and made it almost impossible for motorists to contest their fine if they felt they had a legitimate case,” he said.

Mr Khoury said the changes will still leave some flexibility in the system, while forcing councils to go back to the old scheme.

Concreter Phillip Foglin, who parks all over Sydney for work, slammed councils for using ticketless parking fines as a “cash grab”.

Mr Foglin received a fine in the mail three weeks after he was stung – despite following the rules.

He responded to the fine asking for photographic evidence proving he parked illegally, but when the council replied they said they didn’t have any proof and dropped the fine entirely.

“It’s frustrating because I came and went within the hour limit and felt like I had done nothing wrong, yet they could just issue the fine without proof or evidence,” Mr Foglin said.