A fine earner: 51 parking tickets issued every day in Chiswick High Road
2:00pm Friday 15th January 2010 in Where I Live By Alexa Phillips
51 parking tickets per day: Chiswick High Road
An average of 51 parking tickets are issued every day in Chiswick High Road – raking in nearly £850,000.
Parking fines were issued to 18,668 motorists last year, the third highest number of tickets for any road in London.
Traders spoke out after the figures were released, saying the parking restrictions were putting off potential customers from spending time and money in their shops.
Liz Worth, manager of Jurlique day spa, said: “Parking here is extremely difficult, and it definitely has an effect on business.
“A large number of customers come because they are within walking distance. Even our staff who drive have to use buses.”
Vashti Hearn, who works at Pot Pourri florists, said: “A lot of people are in a rush, because you can’t get parking on the High Road. They park further afield, and then are worried about time and getting back. It’s not good for business.”
Fines are £60 if paid within 14 days but double after that. The amount raised in Chiswick High Road, which is one of the main roads in the borough, would be £847,523, working on the basis motorists pay on time.
Last November we reported how Hounslow Council raked in £5,556,157 in fines last year – £34 per person.
Nigel Humphries, a spokesman for the Association of British Drivers, criticised the parking restrictions.
He said: “Councils claim that fines are about keeping the road clear and enforcing the law, but the regulation is just a money earner and a way to try to stop us using our cars. Anything said about public safety and obstruction is just not true.”
Hounslow Council defended the figure. A spokesman said: “The street has varied sections that include waiting and loading restrictions, pay and display and residential bays to ensure traffic flow and accessibility for all services and visitors to the area.
“The number of penalty charge notices that have been issued given the length of the road is not excessive when you consider the volume of traffic that uses it.”
He added that all parking revenue is invested in improving the transport network.
Number one in the top 10 hotspots for fines, named in an investigation by a London newspaper, was Station Road, Harrow, with a total of 28,884.
Southampton Row in Bloomsbury, followed it with 23,000 motorists fined.
The 500-yard road was the most lucrative road in London with fines totalling £2.5m.
Phillip Taylor says...
1:00pm Sun 17 Jan 10
One of the best examples children can see of bullying is the behaviour of those who use fines as a form or raising revenue as your article exemplifies.
The policy of imposing these fines has led to a complete lack of confidence in what the original purpose of fining for bad parking was, namely to stop inconsiderate behaviour.
I hope that the issue of authorities using fines for revenue enhancement will be raised during the general election and that we have some fair policies in the future which do not penalise the motorist unnecessarily.
MEMO TO POLITICIANS
You have to have the public's confidence it this fining system is to be transparent and not a 'con' of back door taxation under the guise of penal policy!
Phillip Taylor