Nearly half of us have had a parking ticket!

Motorists forced to hand over £74million in fines

SCOTS motorists have been hit with parking fines worth more than £74million over the past five years, with council chiefs accused of using drivers as ‘cash cows’.

Edinburgh was branded Scotland’s ‘biggest car-hating authority’ after raking in more than £26million.

Between April 2017 and May 2022, Scotland’s parking authorities handed out fines to more than 2.2million drivers, almost half of the population.

Scottish Conservative transport spokesman Graham Simpson called the sums raised ‘incredible’.

He added: ‘Councils who are starved of money by the SNP must ensure that they don’t treat motorists as cash cows.

‘There is a balance to be struck between discouraging motor vehicles in town and city centres and keeping the economy moving.

‘It is significant that the biggest car-hating authority, Edinburgh, also collects the most money.’

Unlike some authorities, such as Dumfries and Galloway Council, the capital continued to fine motorists during lockdown. Glasgow City Council pocketed the second-largest amount, £20million of the £74,212,819.10 total. This means that Scotland’s two largest cities raked in more than 62 per cent of the income raised from parking fines across the country.

A spokesman from the Alliance of British Drivers said: ‘It is a pretty eye-watering amount of money for them to make. They will, of course, say it’s down to people not parking properly but it also makes you wonder, when you are talking about that much money, whether it starts becoming part of their budget, whether councils want it to or not.’

Scottish Liberal Democrats transport spokesman Jill Reilly said the ‘astonishing’ total was a consequence of the SNP reducing council budgets.

She said: ‘Councils are now having to scrape the bottom of the barrel for income sources, and this is exactly what we are seeing with parking fines.’

The Scottish Government recently declared war on motorists when it said that more than a million cars would be banned from entering Scotland’s largest cities.

Scott Arthur, City of Edinburgh Council transport convener, said: ‘As Scotland’s capital, it’s essential that the council enforces parking restrictions to keep our city moving.

‘All of the income accrued from parking is invested back into Edinburgh’s roads and transport infrastructure, including active travel improvements.’

A spokesman for Glasgow City Council said: ‘Glasgow is at the centre of Scotland’s largest metropolitan area and it’s no surprise the city takes in such income in relation to parking.’