…but the number of traffic wardens were cut by 5 per cent.
6.8 million parking tickets were handed out in 2011, which is one ticket every five seconds.
According to research by Swiftcover.com, a shortage of town-centre parking and increased use of CCTV technology to spot illegally parked cars were behind the increase, generating over £234 million in revenue for local councils.
Although it is illegal for local authorities to use parking fines specifically to bolster their coffers, the extra funds have come at a good time for councils as they have had their budgets from central government cut by an average of 7 per cent a year until 2014.
An average of 74,257 fines were handed out by each local council last year, an increase of over 2,000 since the previous year.
However, the number of traffic wardens across the councils falling from just under 3,900 by 200.
Robin Reames, chief claims officer at Swiftcover.com, acknowledged that a shortage of parking has become a problem in UK towns and cities but does not excuse illegal parking.
“Although it might be an easy option to park on a double yellow for a short time, it’s potentially dangerous as well as being illegal, and can result in a fine,” he said.
The increase has led to an increase in the number of disputes by motorists, with one in four parking tickets queried by drivers with two out of five being overturned. Around 1/8th of tickets are being issued erroneously although motorists had dramatically different success rates appealing tickets depending on where they lived.
The survey found that only 11% cent of fines were dropped on appeal in Bradford. However this rose to 72% in Chichester.
On a final note…
It has been widely acknowledged by locals of the Welsh University town of Aberystwyth, that after a year chaos caused by no traffic parking enforcement, a return of Traffic Wardens has restored order. 192 parking fines, equating to £10,00, have been issued in the town in the first week since traffic wardens were re-introduced in the town.
This article was written for the Vehicle Reporting and road safety website Regtex.
