UK Motorists Pay Out £30 Million on Parking Fines Every Month Figures Find

New data has revealed that UK motorists are forking out £30 million monthly. Research shows that close to 900,000 tickets have been issued every month this year so far, representing a four per cent increase on figures released last year. The average fine is £42.

The report also revealed that tickets issued on a Sunday had increased by a staggering 13 per cent – more than any other day of the week.

Official statistics show that local authorities now issue an average of 162 parking tickets per day to motorists, with the City of Westminster authority being the most prolific, issuing an average of 1,269 penalty charges per day.

Birmingham City Council distributes an average of 339 parking tickets per day, while traffic wardens in Bristol hand out 271 per day on average.

At the opposite end of the scale, Moray Council, over the border in Scotland, issued just 113 tickets over a six month period.

The biggest cause for concern is the number of tickets being issued on a Sunday, which has seen a substantial rise, 300,000 to be precise, distributed between January and May 2013. This represents an annual increase of 13 per cent.

In a statement from AA spokesperson, Paul Watters, he said: “We all know it’s a big revenue raiser for local authorities. Drivers will be annoyed to know just how much they are paying – it’s enormously frustrating because the punishment very often doesn’t fit the crime.”

The managing director of LV Car Insurance, John O’Roarke’ said: “Parking rules vary from area to area and it is so easy to be caught out when you don’t know the restrictions.”

Communities Secretary, Eric Pickles, also waded into the debate stating: “This new research is more evidence that drivers are being ripped off by unfair parking policies. This over-zealous enforcement is damaging local high streets and shops, as they lose business to out of town superstores and internet retailing. It is a clear abuse of the law that fines have become a cash cow for town hall coffers.”

In a statement from Councillor Daniel Astaire, the Westminster City Council Cabinet member for business, he said: “600,000 cars enter central London every day, and 650 shops on Oxford Street alone are open on a Sunday. For a car insurance company to lecture people on over-charging motorists is hypocritical to say the least.”

He added: “Westminster has reduced tickets by 50 per cent in the last ten years, and we will continue to focus on ways to make parking easier for people. Parking is free on single yellows on a Sunday – if drivers are getting tickets it is because they are blocking traffic or parking dangerously on double yellow lines.”

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 23rd, 2013 at 9:35 am and is filed under Book Theory Test Today News. You can follow any comments to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.