Essex man loses Supreme Court parking battle

An Essex Chip shop owner today learned that his longstanding battle against a parking fine had not been successful.

Barry Beavis lost his appeal to the Supreme Court, following earlier defeats at a county court and the Court of Appeal.

Click below to see what people in his hometown of Chelmsford thought of the ruling.

More: Essex chip shop owner loses Supreme Court battle over parking charge

The ruling against Essex chip shop owner Barry Beavis has "given a licence for ticketers to take over from where the clampers left off", the director of the RAC foundation has warned.

Steve Gooding said it opens the door for parking companies to increase their penalty demands, and motorists would have to fight "sky-high charges" on a case by case basis.

More: Essex man loses Supreme Court parking battle

An Essex chip shop owner has lost an appeal at the UK's highest court over parking charges.

Barry Beavis, 47, of Chelmsford, launched legal action against private car park operators after he was charged £85 for overstaying his allotted two hours of free parking by nearly an hour.

He previously had his challenge dismissed at a county court and the Court of Appeal, and suffered a further defeat at the Supreme Court.

Mr Beavis, who owns The Happy Haddock chip shop in Billericay, Essex, was charged by management company ParkingEye after overstaying the permitted period of free parking at the Riverside Retail Park car park in Chelmsford in April 2013.

ParkingEye says its charges are "fair, reasonable and legally enforceable".

An Essex chip shop owner will find out today if his long and landmark battle against a parking fine has been successful.

Barry Beavis from Chelmsford has always contested the fine.

The appeal court had dismissed his case, but he challenged it and today the Supreme Court will hand down it's final decision.