£700,000 down Lack of lockdown parking fines hits council in pocket
BAndrew Matthews
RISTOL City Council missed out on £700,000 in parking fines during lockdown, it has been revealed.
A Freedom of Information (FOI) request found the authority missed out on the huge chunk of income from drivers who fail to pay at its car parks and on-street spaces.
It received £703,164 less in penalty notices between April and June because of the coronavirus pandemic compared with the same period the year before.
That equates to a whopping 82.8 per cent drop from £848,944 for the three months in 2019 to £145,780 at the height of the Covid-19 crisis when government restrictions on movement were in force.
The figure is the fifth highest loss of income for a local authority outside London, behind only Glasgow, Brighton & Hove, Leeds and Birmingham, who made up the top four.
In April this year, Bristol City Council issued fines totalling only £18,244, although by June the figure had begun to rise again at £94,196.
However, the amount for parking charge notices (PCNs) in
June 2019 was £240,274.
Will Craig, founder of car leasing comparison website LeaseFetcher which sent the FOI to the UK’s largest local authorities, said: “Nobody likes a parking ticket, and if anything good has come of lockdown, it’s that motorists have saved a staggering amount of cash on PCNs.
“It’s not so good for the councils, but they are already starting to claw their way back up to pre-lockdown income levels now that restrictions have eased.”
A Bristol City Council spokesperson said: “Responding to the Covid-19 crisis has had a substantial impact on the council’s finances with the authority likely to take a hit of potentially more than £14million due to the pandemic.
“This is money that underpins the council’s ability to keep our most essential services running and support Bristol’s citizens and we continue to press the Government to introduce funding solutions to help with the true cost of this crisis and enable us to protect the young, elderly and most vulnerable, who will continue to bear the greatest future impact of coronavirus.
“All surplus income from the council’s parking operations is reinvested into much-needed transport-related initiatives such as concessionary bus fares, filling potholes and supporting park-andride facilities.
“This investment is crucial in managing the everyday transport services that Bristol relies upon, especially given the current financial challenges the council is facing.’’
During lockdown, 18 of the largest UK cities, including Bristol but excluding London, lost a total of £8.4million in parking fines compared with the same three months in 2019 - 82.9 per cent less.
1972: Idi Amin gave Uganda’s 8,000 Asians 48 hours to leave the country.
1980: Workers in Poland formed a new independent labour union, Solidarity.
1989: An IRA bomb attack killed 10 at the Royal Marines School of Music in Deal, Kent.
1991: Bryan Adams made pop history when Everything I Do, I Do For You, stayed at number one for a 12th week.
» » » »
Fay Weldon, novelist, 89; David Coverdale, rock singer, 69; Nick Cave, singer, 63; Joan Jett, rock musician, 62; Scott Baio, actor, 60; Emmanuel Petit, former footballer, 50; Chesney Hawkes, singer, 49; Harry Kewell, former footballer, 42; Billie Piper, actress, 38.
»
Billie Piper