Motorists pay £3 million to park in street

Roads on which the most parking fines have been issued were revealed today, with millions of pounds worth of penalties being dished out on some streets.

From Channel 4 News, the survey showed motorists in Lordship Lane in Tottenham, north London, had to pay more than £3.18 million in fines in 2004/05.

The total was made up of a mixture of fines from enforcement cameras and parking attendants.

Motorists in two other London streets also forked out large sums - £1.01 million in Newington Green Road, Islington, north London in 2005/06 and £1.91 million in Vine Street, Uxbridge, west London, for the period 2004/06.

Outside London, the most-ticketed streets in 2005/06 were George Street, Edinburgh (£1.25 million); Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow (£378,180); Alum Rock Road, Birmingham (£339,960); Clarendon Road, Leeds (£226,980); Surrey Street, Sheffield (£141,300); Quakers Friars, Bristol (£114,180); Prince of Wales Road, Norwich (£117.960); and Barbican, Plymouth (£43,500).

Actor Tom Conti, co-founder of the London Motorists' Action Group, said: "There is a spirit of entrapment when it comes to parking tickets. If some councils are saying they don't make money from this, you wonder how these people get jobs."

Barrie Segal, parking campaigner and founder of Appeal Now, said: "The main problem is there is not a motorist out there who believes these tickets are issued for the benefit of keeping the streets clear.

"When you see parking attendants flinging themselves in front of cars to give them a ticket, you know that's the case."

A spokesman for the Local Government Association said: "Parking regulations are there for everyone to abide by, to maintain road safety, keep the traffic moving and help get you safely through the day.

"Any revenue raised from fixed penalty charges is retained locally for funding the enforcement system. Any surplus money is spent on local transport investment such as road maintenance and street lighting."

A spokeswoman for Edinburgh City Council defended the high volume of tickets in George Street.

She said: "We have to make sure there is a high turnover for traders in the area. We have 10,000 on-street and 10,000 off-street parking spaces in the city. But people want to park in George Street because it's right in the centre of town."

Haringey Council in London, which was responsible for the fines in Lordship Lane in 2004/05, said the high volume of parking tickets had mainly been as a result of motorists breaking new bus-lane regulations and going into box junctions.

It added that the fact the number of tickets issued dropped to about £1 million in 2005/06 showed motorists were learning to obey the rules.

Plymouth Council said that the figures given to Channel 4 News for the Barbican related to a number of different streets in that area of the city.

Copyright Press Association 2006