Parking ticket is given out every TWO SECONDS as shock new figures show councils and firms are on course to rake in £1.3bn in fines this year
- Drivers are being given around 50,000 parking tickets per day, show figures
- Town halls and parking firms are on track to issue £1.3billion worth of fines
- Councils such as York and Thanet planning to increase parking charges by 10%
Drivers are being hit with around 50,000 parking tickets a day – or one every two seconds.
Shock new figures reveal the ‘ruthless’ army of parking wardens employed by councils are issuing nearly 20,000 fines a day on average.
With private companies dishing out a record 30,000 daily tickets, it means town halls and parking firms are on track to issue £1.3billion in fines this year if current rates continue.
It will stoke concerns that drivers are being used as cash cows amid the cost of living crisis, with many councils plotting double-digit rises in parking charges this year.
Drivers are being hit with around 50,000 parking tickets a day – or one every two seconds
York, Southend, Thanet, Rutland and the London Borough of Waltham Forest are among those that have already said they will increase parking charges by around 10 per cent from April.
Figures obtained by Churchill Motor Insurance suggest councils issued fines at a daily rate of 19,631 in 2022, up 12 per cent on 2021.
This swelled council coffers by an estimated £777,287 a day, up £35,113.
The analysis is based on data from 230 councils that responded to Freedom of Information requests – the true figures are likely to be higher as there are more than 300 local authorities in the UK.
Islington Council in north London issued more fines than any other town hall with a daily average of 1,012, followed by Lambeth and Waltham Forest, both also in London, with 999 and 874 respectively.
Outside the capital, Birmingham City Council had the highest rate (373), followed by Southampton City Council (313) and Cardiff Council (279).
It means town halls and parking firms are on track to issue £1.3billion in fines this year if current rates continue (file image)
Many motorists complain of being punished for honest mistakes, such as wrongly keying their number plate into ticketing machines by accident or overstaying by a few minutes.
Fines issued by councils can be up to £130 in London or £70 elsewhere. Separately, private firms issued 2.7million tickets to drivers between April and June last year, the latest period data is available for – up 50 per cent on the same period in 2021.
Edmund King, president of the AA, said: ‘Upping the charges and fining every single small mistake is a ruthless way to prop up council coffers.’
The Local Government Association said income from fines is spent on parking services, with any surplus ‘spent on essential transport projects’.
It comes after the Government withdrew parts of a code of practice aimed at protecting drivers from ‘cowboy’ operators, after parking firms began a judicial review.
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