City pays £4m in parking fines – in just a single year
CITY motorists have paid almost £4 million in parking fines in one year, according to new figures.
Drivers lost £3.9m to Penalty Charge Notices (PCNs) for councilrun spaces across the city during the period 2015 to 2016.
The figure puts Glasgow as the third highest-spending city in the UK, exceeded only by Birmingham (£4.6m) and Edinburgh (£5.3m).
The data, which was obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests, also shows Glasgow City Council received more than £9.5m from parking meter charges, putting it in the top five in the UK.
Councils in more than 20 of the UK’s largest cities were asked by price-comparison site Looking4. com to reveal the data for the same period.
Martin Mansell, managing director at Looking4.com, said: “Drivers deserve to know how their city stacks up against other council charges across the UK.
“Seeing the data broken down like this, we hope to educate drivers and encourage them to do some research before forking out for overthe-top parking charges, or risking a fine.
“We’ve also created an interactive map to help them avoid paying extortionate prices and hope to shed some light on what options they have.”
The interactive map, which includes annual council income from parking meters and penalty charge notices, can be found on the firm’s website.
It also reveals that the lowest cost for parking in council-run facilities is 80p per hour while the highest is £3 per hour.
The site also states that there are 133 free parking spaces in the city while there are 15,229 paid parking spaces.
A Glasgow City Council spokeswoman said: “Penalty charge notices are issued to drivers who chose to ignore parking restrictions. The income from PCNs does not cover the costs to administer parking regulations, but it is a necessary service and helps to keep the city moving.
“Glasgow provides affordable short-term parking for shopping and business needs. “Parking restrictions are designed to protect local businesses and residents from the indiscriminate and all-day commuter parking that can occur in areas where restrictions are not in place.
“People can also use the extremely popular mobile phone payment system RINGO to pay for parking.”
The British Parking Association says that good-quality, well-designed and properly maintained parking provision is vital to the prosperity of Britain’s towns and cities. This needs to be funded.
Andrew Pester, BPA chief executive, said: “There are strict rules laid down by law that stipulate how any parking surplus funds are spent and this typically means re-investment in traffic management that benefits the entire community.
“Many councils also provide annual reports so that residents can see how the money is spent, and we encourage everyone to do so.”
Only around 1% of all penalty charges are taken to the tribunals to be appealed.
Around half of the appeals are upheld by adjudicators.