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Westminster tops table as councils and TfL hand out six million fines to drivers
Martin Bentham, Home Affairs Editor14 Aug 2008
More than six million fines for parking and other traffic offences were handed out to drivers in London last year.
Figures released today show the number of penalty notices issued by Transport for London and councils rose by 2.3 per cent, with Westminster, Camden and Lambeth giving out the most.
Nearly half of the fines were at the highest tariff - £120 in central London and £80 in outer boroughs - for serious offences such as stopping in safety zones outside schools.
The rest were for " lesser offences" - £100 in the centre and £60 elsewhere - such as overstaying in a pay-and-display parking bay.
Colin Smith, deputy chairman of London Councils' transport and environment committee, defended the growing number of fines.
He said: "Motorists are often irritated to find they have been issued with a ticket but the simple message is if you don't break the rules you won't get one."
Of the two-tier fines structure, introduced in July last year, he said: "People told us in our consultation that motorists who selfishly endanger lives and cause the most disruption should receive a heavier penalty than those committing a lesser contravention."
Today's figures show:
• 6,176,752 penalty notices were handed out between 1 April last year and 31 March this year, compared with 6,016,683 in the previous 12 months.
• Of these, 5,200,484 fines were issued for parking transgressions, a one per cent rise on 2006/07, with 2,976,110 set at the higher level under the two-tier system.
• The majority of the remaining fines were issued for "moving traffic" offences, such as stopping in a yellow box, with the total in this category rising by almost 200,000 to 611,130 on the previous year.
• The number of tickets issued for driving in a bus lane was 293,399, down by more than 155,000 on the 2006/07 figure and a drop of more than 500,000 in three years.
• The highest number of tickets were issued in Westminster (824,687), followed by Camden (529,874), Lambeth (295,802), and Ealing (283,360).
• Since the two-tier system began 76 per cent of fines have been for the higher tariff.
• The number of driver appeals - 64,072 - was a one per cent increase on the previous 12 months, and about 70 per cent of the 58,985 heard were successful.
• The number of vehicles clamped fell by a third to 23,183. The total towed away was down eight per cent to 7,730.
Reader views (2)
The councils have basically booby-trapped central London, I've had enough, so long suckers.
- Frank Lee, Covent garden, London, 21/08/2008 18:04
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'If you don't break the rules, you won't get a ticket.' Why are so many appeals successful then?
- Ted, London, 14/08/2008 15:17
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