MOTORISTS will get a 10-minute grace period if they stay too long in thousands of private car parks from today.
The British Parking Association (BPA) has updated its code of practice to bring it into line with local authority car parks.
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The trade association's chief executive, Patrick Troy, said: "We want to make it easier for motorists to park in whichever car park they use when they go about their daily business.
"By making private car parks as similar to local authority ones as possible, life becomes much simpler for the motorist."
Operators have also been banned from offering financial incentives to attendants for the number of tickets they issue.
The code of practice applies to thousands of private car parks across the country.
The BPA has disciplined operator UK Parking Control (UKPC) over a scam in which attendants doctored photographs of parked vehicles to make it appear they had overstayed. The BPA issued eight sanction points to UKPC. If it receives four more it will be suspended from the association.
Meanwhile the DVLA has barred the operator from accessing drivers' details, while it carries out its own investigation. This means that UKPC cannot contact motorists to request payments.
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