As my earlier post did not mention the law, I should clarify that parking with your engine idling is against the law! The law could be much clearer – drivers have to be warned before there can be enforcement, and there are various circumstances in which it is excused. And sometimes the fine is … wait for it … a whopping £20! Compare with littering, which in the London Borough of Brent attracts a £100 fixed penalty notice or up to a £2,500 fine in court. Or letting your dog foul the pavement, which can attract an £80 fixed penalty notice. I’m no fan of litter or dog turds, but those comparisons show that public policy treats idling engines as a fairly trivial problem.
Moreover, as far as I have been able to find out, the police do not enforce the anti-idling law at all. Only local authorities enforce, and then only if they have ‘authorised officers’ to do so.
In the street yesterday, I stopped a ‘civil enforcement officer’ for Kensington and Chelsea. Despite the bland, and potentially broad, job title, his task is to give out parking tickets. I asked him if he is empowered to give out tickets for idling. He said no, but there are warning leaflets that he can give out. However, when I asked if I could see one, he rather sheepishly said he wasn’t carrying any. He said that at present there is no enforcement in Kensington and Chelsea, because the council is trying to decide whether to deal with it internally, ie by employing its own officers, or to contract it out – like all the parking enforcement. He works for a private company that does that enforcement. He told me that his boss would ‘love the contract’ to ticket for idling, but he himself was less keen – he said it’s enough ‘aggro’ already giving out parking tickets when people park illegally for five minutes, and it would be much worse giving a ticket for idling instantly, ie without five minutes’ grace. I suggested that there are many more parked cars with their engines running at this time of year, because of the cold. He disagreed – he said in the summer it’s a problem, because of air-conditioning, in the winter because of heating. But he implied that there is really no off-season for idlers – there are always good reasons to keep those fires burning!
What’s clear is that there is enforcement only when it is monetised – and it should be said, some authorities have set fines higher than £20. However, the general picture on enforcement is that there really isn’t any. A freedom of information request in early 2019 revealed that of five local authorities who claimed to be actively enforcing the anti-idling law, three (Reading, Camden and Norwich) had not issued any FPNs in 2018, Southwark had issued nine, and Westminster 20*.
Local authorities are making some efforts in terms of public awareness, but generally warning notices are, it seems to me, placed only around schools (I shall add links to some of the better online campaigns). I don’t doubt that schools are entitled to clean air, and schools have concentrations of children so it’s not an unreasonable place to start a campaign against idlers (many of whom are probably the parents of the school children). But it’s important to remember that children are at school for under 20% of the hours in each week, and for about 39 weeks of the year. So, for the 85% of the year when they are not at school, they are somewhere else – mostly at home, but also in the street, the park, the shops – and in cars! Idling is a problem everywhere, and it poisons the occupants of cars too!
By keeping your engine running to keep your daughter warm while you wait for her brother to come out of after-school club, you are also poisoning her. Is that the right choice: she’s cosy, but inhaling carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, and particulate matter which, the science seems to show, will stay in her lungs for the rest of her life? Or would it be better to put on coats, and maybe stroll up and down the pavement to keep warm. Or – crazy idea, I know – don’t collect your son by car at all.
Bye bye car. Hello clean, friendly city 