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Parking tickets ‘like confetti’: revenue from fines up by £7m
WESTMINSTER Council collected more than £38 million in parking fines in 2006/07 – the largest amount in the country.
The figure is up £7 million on the previous year, representing a 23 per cent increase.
Almost 70,000 of the 159,000 parking tickets issued were challenged by motorists.
Paul Dimoldenberg, leader of the Westminster Labour group, said: “Westminster Conservatives are using parking fines to finance the council. It is a crazy state of affairs when so much of the council’s activities are dependent on parking wardens issuing as many tickets as possible. It seems as if the Conservatives are issuing parking tickets like confetti. There must be something wrong with a system when almost half of the parking tickets issued by the council have to be cancelled when they are challenged by drivers.
“No wonder Westminster is awash with money with a 23 per cent increase in parking income.
“No other council in the country is able to benefit to the same extent from having such a massive annual income and it is the only reason that Westminster Conservatives are able to charge a low council tax.”
Councillor Danny Chalkley, transport supremo in the council, said: “While the number of tickets issued will always vary year on year, we must be honest with ourselves and recognise why we lost more appeals.
“We believe that this was because last year we were often too rigid when considering motorists’ appeals and applying the strict letter of the law, rather than taking due consideration of an individual’s circumstances.” |
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