• Parking permits should be displayed in your windshield.car image by Brett Bouwer from Fotolia.com
  
  In the United Kingdom, you may need to obtain the appropriate permit to park in certain parking bays. This allows residents to park near their homes and doctors to have easy access to their vehicles in an emergency. Other car park bays won't require a permit, but you will have to purchase a ticket to park in that spot.
  
  

Permit Holder Park Bays

• The most common car park bays you'll find are permit holder bays. If you hold a residents' permit, certain business permits or visitors' permits, you may park your vehicle in these bays. Permit holder bay signs will convey controlled hours in which these bays may only be used by permit holders. Loading and unloading may also be done from these bays without permit, but you can only utilize the parking bay for a maximum of 20 minutes. However, the loading and unloading action must be continual or else you may be subject to a fine.
  
  

Residents' Parking Bays

• In certain parts of the country, residents reserve the right to park in designated bays. To park in these bays, you must hold a residents' permit or a visitors' permit. If you hold only a business permit, you cannot park in any bay with a sign posted that says "Resident Permit Holders Only."
  
  

Pay-and-Display Park Bays

• Pay-and-display parking bay function much like a metered parking bay. However, instead of putting money into a meter, you must purchase a ticket upon arrival from a nearby machine and display that ticket in your windshield. If you discover the machine is out of order, you need to purchase a ticket from the next available pay-and-display machine. There may be times you cannot park in a pay-and-display bay. You cannot park in a pay-and-display bay that is suspended as indicated by a yellow bag with the words "no waiting, no loading" or one that is still under construction as indicated by a plain bag.
  
  

Club Car Park Bays

• You may park your vehicle in a car club bay only if your car belongs to the particular car club that owns that park bay. When parking in a car club bay, you must display your car club permit in your car so it's visible. Under no circumstance---not even for loading of unloading a vehicle---can you park in or stop in a car club bay without the proper permit.
  
  

Doctor Park Bays

• Typically located near hospitals or medical centers, only medical practitioners with the proper permit may park their cars in doctor park bays. This allows doctors to quickly get to their cars when they are on emergency call out. Unless a sign says otherwise, only those with doctor permits can park in doctor park bays from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., according to the Camden Council.