Councils have been told to stop using parking charges and fines to ‘boost council coffers’ under new reforms published by communities secretary, Eric Pickles.
The proposals to reform parking rules include stopping CCTV being used for on-street parking enforcement. There will also be new data made available to the public for them to compare the parking charges of different councils.
Mr Pickles said: ‘Excessive parking charges and unfair parking fines push up the cost of living, and undermine local high streets and shopping parades. We want to rein over-zealous parking enforcement, so it focuses on supporting high streets and motorists, not raising money.
‘Parking spy cars are just one example of this and a step too far. Public confidence is strengthened in CCTV if it is used to tackle crime, not to raise money for council coffers.’
The proposals also outline steps to review unnecessary yellow lines, tackling wrongly-issued fines and updating parking enforcement guidance to support local shops.
However, the Local Government Association (LGA) has wanred that parking controls are not about councils raising revenue.
Tony Ball, vice chairman of the LGA’s Economy and Transport Board, said: ‘Nobody likes getting a parking fine but the fact that less than one per cent go to adjudication shows that in the vast majority of cases councils get it right.
‘Income from on-street parking fines and charges is spent on parking services with any money left over spent on services like fixing potholes and providing subsidised bus travel to children and the elderly.’
Local authorities made £1.3bn in parking fines in 2010, with nine million issued every year in England.
