The council that’s raking in £10.6MILLION in parking fine revenues a year

Revealed: The council that raked in £10.6m from parking fines in just a YEAR as the average authority issues more than £850,000 in tickets

  • Councils have revealed how much revenue they’ve pocketed from parking fines
  • Some 204 authorities provided data for between August 2019 and July 2020
  • We’ve listed the top 10 London Boroughs raking in the most revenues and the councils outside of the capital making the most from motorists
  • The most-fined street in each area has also been provided in the research

The average council is issuing more than £850,000 in parking fines every year, and the local authority with the highest revenues is collecting more than £10.6million in tickets, new research has revealed.

The London Borough of Newham is the parking fine capital of the UK, issuing nearly a quarter of a million fines over the space of a year, according to an investigation by Compare the Market.

The top 10 councils raking in the most from motorists is dominated by London boroughs, which together collected more than £65million in a year.

However, we have also listed the local authorities with the biggest parking ticket earnings outside of the capital – and reveal which roads in each area saw drivers stung most commonly. 

The London Borough of Newham was found to be pocketing the most significant revenues, taking £10.6million from 239,000 tickets issued

The jaw-dropping scale of parking fine revenues has been revealed by the comparison website after it issued Freedom of Information requests to local authorities in August 2020, of which 204 responded with figures.

The data covers the period from August 2019 to July 2020, therefore not accounting for the full impact of reduced traffic volumes in the last year due to the pandemic.  

Nine of the 10 local authorities taking in the most cash from parking fines are in Greater London, with each council collecting more than £4million in revenue in fines each year. 

The London Borough of Newham was found to be pocketing the most significant revenues, taking £10.6million from 239,000 tickets issued. 

Browning Road was named the location where the local authority issued the most tickets. 

The City of Glasgow is the only council outside of London to make it into the top 10 earning authorities, issuing 104,938 fines over the 12-month period with a total value of almost £5.5million. 

Wellington Street in the city centre was the most common location where motorists were issued the highest volume of fines during the period, says the study.  

TOP 10 LONDON LOCAL AUTHORITIES FOR PARKING FINE REVENUES
Council PCN’s issued Total revenue Average fine Location with highest number
London Borough of Newham 239,000 £10,625,600.00 £44.46 Browning road
London Borough of Haringey 137,415 £9,898,840.00 £72.04 High Road N17
London Borough of Ealing 157,759 £8,372,318.20 £53.07 Longfield Avenue/New Broadway
London Borough of Redbridge 132,084 £6,484,034.21 £49.09 Ilford Lane
London Borough of Enfield 131,820 £6,071,032.00 £46.06 Montagu Road/Conduit Lane
London Borough of Lambeth 121,895 £6,023,222.76 £49.41 Acre Lane
London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham 117,098 £5,570,366.00 £47.57 Macfarlane Road
London Borough of Islington 132,582 £5,479,328.00 £41.33 St John Street
London Borough of Brent 105,986 £4,662,650.00 £43.99 Kingsbury Road
London Borough of Bexley 129,667 £4,361,000.00 £33.63 Bellegrove Road, Welling
Source: FOI to local councils by Compare the Market in August 2020 

The average fine issued by councils was calculated to be £37, rising to £41 on average in the 20 local authorities that made the most revenue from parking tickets. 

Drivers in London Borough of Haringey, Gosport Borough Council, and Durham County Council were issued with the highest fines costing them £72.04, £66.25, and £57.93 on average respectively, Compare the Market claims.

In the last year, local authorities, on average, issued nearly 23,000 parking fines – with the 20 authorities that issued the most fines handing out nearly 2.2million fines between them.

Up and down the country local authorities are issuing 63 parking fines a day – rising to 307 fines per day by the 20 local authorities issuing the most fines.

The latest figures follow statistics released to the Daily Mail earlier this month showing that councils raked in a record £1billion in parking charges in 2018-19.

TOP 10 LOCAL AUTHORITIES OUTSIDE OF LONDON FOR PARKING FINE REVENUES
Council  PCN’s issued Total revenue Average fine Location with highest number
City of Glasgow 104,938 £5,484,781.03 £52.27 Wellington Street
Birmingham City Council 112,735 £3,951,065.00 £35.05 Alum Rock Road
Brighton and Hove City Council 106,037 £2,835,025.64 £26.74 Madeira Drive
Liverpool City Council    63,831 £2,495,815.00 £39.10 Mount Pleasant Car Park
East Sussex County Council    42,531 £2,029,072.00 £47.71 High Street, Lewes
Newcastle upon Tyne City Council    59,013 £1,880,248.91 £31.86 Dean Street Multi Story
Medway Council    64,648 £1,577,274.29 £24.40 Blue Boar Lane Car Park
Bournemouth Borough Council    57,118 £1,544,610.00 £27.04 Chirstchurch Road, Bournemouth
Cardiff Council    49,781 £1,489,450.00 £29.92 Windsor Place, Cardiff City Centre
Oxfordshire County Council    42,525 £1,411,739.00 £33.20 St Giles, Oxford
Source: FOI to local councils by Compare the Market in August 2020 
The City of Glasgow is the only council outside of London to make it into the top 10 earning authorities, issuing 104,938 fines over the 12-month period with a total value of almost £5.5m

The City of Glasgow is the only council outside of London to make it into the top 10 earning authorities, issuing 104,938 fines over the 12-month period with a total value of almost £5.5m

The staggering sum included the cost of car parks and street permits after some cash-strapped councils raised prices by up to 230 per cent.

It also includes the cash from parking fines issued by armies of traffic wardens working for the more than 350 local authorities in England, Scotland and Wales. 

Department for Transport figures show the profits banked for parking charges in the 12-month period was £996million.

It amounts to £2.7million a day – or £32 a second, once operating costs were deducted.

Commenting on the new figures, Dan Hutson, head of motor at Compare the Market, said: ‘Parking fine revenues are a cash cow for many local authorities. 

‘Up and down the country drivers are regularly being caught out by tight parking restrictions. 

‘With the third lockdown now in place, we would encourage drivers to take extra care and attention when parking up their car to ensure they avoid a parking fine.’

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