Penalty parking charges raised more than £280,000 in six months for Peterborough City Council

More than £281,000 was raised by Peterborough City Council through penalty parking charges issued in just six months, according to new figures.

The cash was generated by the fines chargeable on the 11,012 penalty charge notices that were handed out in the first half of last year to drivers who breached parking rules from parking on double yellow lines to parking on a single yellow line at a prohibited time.

Now a motor insurance firm has warned drivers to make sure they take note of ‘sometime complicated’ parking rules before leaving their vehicle.

The new figures show that an average of 61 penalty charge notices were issued every day in the first half of last year by the council.

It is a higher rate than the whole of 2021 when a rate of 39 notices per day were handed out.

The total collected through the penalty charge notices in the first half of 2022 amounted to £281,175 – or £1,562 a day.

This was an increase on the £1,085 a day collected across the whole of 2021.

The figures also show that a total of £985,711 was collected by the council through parking tickets from the start of 2020 to June 2022.

The statistics have been revealed through a Freedom of Information request submitted by Churchill Motor Insurance.

Nicholas Mantel, head of Churchill Motor Insurance, said: “Motorists across Britain are regularly being caught out by increased and sometimes complicated parking restrictions.

“We would encourage drivers to always check parking signs carefully to ensure they avoid any expensive fines.

“If motorists do receive a parking fine, they have 28 days to pay it or appeal to an independent tribunal,” he added.

But a spokesperson for the Local Government Association, who represent councils in England and Wales, said: “Income raised through on-street parking charges and parking fines is spent on running parking services.

"Any surplus is spent on essential transport projects, including fixing the £11 billion road repairs backlog, reducing congestion, tackling poor air quality and supporting local bus services,” they added.