Parking - is 5 mins 'grace' a lawful thing?

[UTH]

The only place to park near the place I pick up my daughter from child minder/nursery is no parking 0800-1830. Given it takes me 5 mins or less from getting out of the car to getting back in with her, am I actually safe from being ticketed, or is the 5 mins grace thing not actually a real thing, more just a hope that wardens cut you a tiny bit of slack?

[ferret50]

Is this to save you walking 100m to the nearest allowed parking place?

[georgeyboy12345]

Depends. In Manchester the wardens are pretty chill about it these days. I understand they are often more strict around schools and stuff

[Scrump]

I thought the 5 minutes grace was for overstaying in a time limited parking area (e.g Max 2 hours parking).
I can’t see that it would apply in an area with no parking permitted.

[UTH]

Scrump said:

I thought the 5 minutes grace was for overstaying in a time limited parking area (e.g Max 2 hours parking).
I can’t see that it would apply in an area with no parking permitted.

Hmmmm, yes, good point, that would make sense. So probably safe at 0805 but not going to get any favours at 1730.....

[Scrump]

UTH said:

Hmmmm, yes, good point, that would make sense. So probably safe at 0805 but not going to get any favours at 1730.....

That is how I understand it.
(IANATW)

[brillomaster]

why would they need to give you a grace period? any car parked there at 8:01 am would be contravening the clearly marked time limit.

i'd make sure your watch is accurate, and make sure you're back at your car by 7:59am.

if you're still parked there at 8:02am and you haven't had a ticket, consider yourself lucky.

can you not go 5 minutes earlier so you're all done by 7:55am? why do you have to cut it so fine with getting a ticket?

[UTH]

brillomaster said:

why would they need to give you a grace period? any car parked there at 8:01 am would be contravening the clearly marked time limit.

i'd make sure your watch is accurate, and make sure you're back at your car by 7:59am.

if you're still parked there at 8:02am and you haven't had a ticket, consider yourself lucky.

can you not go 5 minutes earlier so you're all done by 7:55am? why do you have to cut it so fine with getting a ticket?

It's not so much the drop off, it's the pickup. Most of the time I am back in the car by 0800, but sometimes when Mrs UTH is working late I need to do the pickup as well which is before 1800, parking restricted until 1830. No big deal really, if I get done it's my fault, fully aware now that it's on me with no leg to stand on.

[Countdown]

UTH said:

The only place to park near the place I pick up my daughter from child minder/nursery is no parking 0800-1830. Given it takes me 5 mins or less from getting out of the car to getting back in with her, am I actually safe from being ticketed, or is the 5 mins grace thing not actually a real thing, more just a hope that wardens cut you a tiny bit of slack?

Apologies if this is stating the bleeding obvious but aren't the restrictions in place specifically to top parents parking there when picking up / dropping off?

[ruhall]

UTH said:

Scrump said:

I thought the 5 minutes grace was for overstaying in a time limited parking area (e.g Max 2 hours parking).
I can’t see that it would apply in an area with no parking permitted.

Hmmmm, yes, good point, that would make sense. So probably safe at 0805 but not going to get any favours at 1730.....

No, not unless you had paid to park and your ticket expired at 0800hrs. in a carpark or metered area etc.. No parking 0800-1830 (or whatever time the sign says) means simply that, no parking 0800-1830. It's there for a reason. If not, what's to stop hundreds of vehicles parking for 'just 5 minutes, or 'just 10-minutes'?

[UTH]

Yep, fair enough, thanks all.

[Pica-Pica]

Countdown said:

UTH said:

The only place to park near the place I pick up my daughter from child minder/nursery is no parking 0800-1830. Given it takes me 5 mins or less from getting out of the car to getting back in with her, am I actually safe from being ticketed, or is the 5 mins grace thing not actually a real thing, more just a hope that wardens cut you a tiny bit of slack?

Apologies if this is stating the bleeding obvious but aren't the restrictions in place specifically to top parents parking there when picking up / dropping off?

Indeed. That bit seems hard for some to understand.
As said, any ‘period of grace’ is after a legitimate restricted parking duration has expired.