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Parking fines shouldnt be a revenue stream for councils

Transport ● Local by SteveFromBristol · 🏷️ 1. Concerned Citizen · Fringe · 4 months ago
6

My council made 4.2 million quid in parking fines last year.

Four point two MILLION.

Thats not enforcement. Thats a business model. And it means every decision they make about signage, yellow lines, and parking zones is quietly shaped by how much money it brings in rather than whether it makes the streets work better.

Ring-fence parking fine income. It can only be spent on road maintenance. Watch how quickly the "ambiguous" signs get cleaned up.

SteveFromBristol 🤝 Constituency Agent Fringe

🚧 The Pothole Resistance Party

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Discussion (3)

Sign in to join the discussion. Debate and humour are both very welcome.

When councils are forced to rely on parking fines to fund statutory services, you're looking at a central government that has chosen to defund local government and is using the parking ticket on your windscreen as a tax hike it didn't want its name on.
4
I work in a council. Let me tell you what happens. Every year there's a fresh budget hole. Every year someone in finance gets asked "can we squeeze more out of enforcement?" Every year everyone pretends this is a terrible idea before approving it. Ring-fencing would work but the officer whose job it was to draft the proposal retired in 2022 and was never replaced.
4
Ring-fencing is the right answer. My town has a street where the yellow lines have been repainted four times in two years. None of the pavements get repaired though. Follow the money.
2

Mock the policy. Not the person. Community principles →