Paul Rowen questions £1.2 billion pound parking charges

Date published: 30/06/2006

Commenting after of the publication of the Transport Select Committee’s Report into parking charges, the Liberal Democrats have released new research which shows that since Labour came to power England’s parking charges have increased a massive 82%. In the last year (03/04 to 04/05) alone they went up 6%. England’s motorists are now being charged almost £1.2bn a year.

Commenting, Liberal Democrat Transport Spokesperson and Rochdale MP, Paul Rowen, said:

"These figures are a cause for great concern, I am concerned that motorist's are getting unfairly hit in the pocket.  In the Rochdale Borough, for example, the percentage increase is 57% since Labour came into power.  In 1997/98, the income from parking charges was £1,098,000, this has risen to £1,727.000 in 2004/05.  This works out to be £33,211.54 a week or £4,744.51 a day.  It's not clear from these figures how much is parking charges and how much is fines, I will be asking for a clear breakdown. Councils (including Rochdale) need to issue a clear code of practice and publish their figures annually.

"Signage needs to be clear and the DfT needs to give local councils the powers to have graduated fines. For example, why should someone who is just 2 minutes over on a parking ticket pay the same fine as someone who has delibrately parked on yellow lines?

"I would like to see the council taking stronger action against people who park on yellow lines and other traffic offences. For example, Oldham Road at its junction with Kingsway/Queensway.

"The Government clearly sees motorists simply as a cash cow. These increases have punished motorists without achieving any impact on congestion. We must also know how much of this is being driven by private parking contractors.  Parking Attendants do not have a very good reputation, the reason for this is that  we often hear of quotas, targets and private companies encouraging attendants to issue tickets like confetti and ignoring common sense, this has got to stop."