News & Features

Parking Fines on the Rise

Posted in General News on Friday, December 3rd, 2021

A near record number of parking tickets have been issued to UK motorists by private parking companies this year. According to analysis conducted by the RAC Foundation 1.95 million motorists received a parking ticket in the first three months of the 2021-2022 financial year. If this trend continues over the next three quarters, by the end of the year the figures will be close to the record high of 8.4 million reached in 2019-2020. Almost 159 private parking companies requested vehicle ownership records from the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) for the purpose of issuing parking tickets last year compared to 97 in 2016. Director of the RAC Foundation, Steve Gooding commented: the DVLA’s figures “cast doubt” on industry claims that firms’ margins are “hanging by a hair’s breadth. If that’s the case, how come more and more appear to be joining the industry already on track this year to issue a near record level of demands for parking charges? It is inconceivable that more than eight million drivers are setting out each year consciously deciding to flout parking rules and risk ending up with a parking charge. These numbers, which have risen in leaps and bounds over the last 10 years, suggest we have a system that isn’t working – not for the motorists who are receiving charge demands and not for the private landowners either.” 

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