On average, more than 40,000 Penalty Charge Notices (PCNs) are issued per day. That is equivalent to one every two seconds, and that number has been growing in recent years. But now one type of Penalty will become much more of a rarity. Car parks - or at least many of them - will no longer issue PCNs for taking too long to pay.

The change comes after Excel Parking claimed almost £2000 in fines from Rosey Hudson towards the end of last year. Ms Hudson, variously described in the press as a "bikini fitness model", a "professional bodybuilder", and a "make-up artist" had repeatedly taken more than five minutes after parking to make payment. She blamed the delays on a poor mobile phone signal, and her case generated a significant amount of publicity. Excel ultimately discontinued the claim.

In response to public anger at this issue, the International Parking Community (IPC) and the British Parking Association (BPA) set up an advisory board, the Private Parking Scrutiny and Advice Panel (PPSAP). It is the PPSAP that abolished the so-called 'five-minute rule'.

However, the rule is not yet out for the count. The change only applies to private car parks managed by fixed-camera technology, but not to council car parks or to sites without camera monitoring. The BPA has therefore advised drivers to read the signage at their chosen car park carefully, as they may otherwise still find themselves liable for delays in paying.

Perhaps inevitably, the change has received mixed reviews. The heads of the IPC and BPA called it "the right thing to do" and "a real testament" to the parking sector, which "is always striving to ensure it operates in the interest of compliant motorists and to ensure that parking is fairly managed for all." Meanwhile, the head of policy at the RAC, Simon Williams, said the changes were "smoke and mirrors" and called for more radical reform. He suggested reducing the cap on parking charges from £100 to £50 and banning the addition of debt recovery fees.

So, while consumers might consider this a victory of sorts, it is clear that disputes about parking charges... aren't going anywhere.