Inside Out decided to investigate parking in Sunderland after hearing complaints that the system was badly managed, and a cause for concern for many of the city's motorists. Three years ago the City Council took control of parking from the police and contracted out day-to-day operations to National Car Parks (NCP).  | | Inside Out presenter Chris Jackson |
Since then there have been numerous complaints about confusion over ticketing, and about parking attendants trying to rack up ticket numbers. ComplaintsInside Out had also received complaints that individuals, streets, and even racial groups, had been targeted by NCP's parking attendants. Activists, like the former "Metric Martyr" Neil Herron, have even questioned whether Sunderland's system is legal. They've helped to get the City Council to refund more than £64,000 worth of tickets. These were serious allegations. So Inside Out decided to find out if they were true. We wanted to know: Is the system properly set up and well managed? Are the attendants targeting people, even whole streets? Is there racism? Is there a ticketing culture in NCP? Repeating serious allegations wasn't enough. Shadowing an attendant selected by NCP wouldn't tell us what was really going on. The only way to find out was to get hard evidence. That meant secretly filming the NCP operation in the city. The evidence that we have gathered suggests there is a serious problem with racism, abuse and apparent incompetence in Sunderland's parking system. It raises serious questions about the way the system has been set up and managed. We think our evidence is startling. You can now judge for yourself. | 
