Tuesday 15th February 2011

London Street Generates £1m In Parking Fines

Single Lambeth street wins 'cash cow' parking prize for million-pound year

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A single street in Lambeth generated nearly £1m in parking fines last year, making it the capital's biggest 'cash cow' for parking fines in a recently published list.

Clapham Park Road managed to pull in £914,040 for the borough of Lambeth in the past year - a whole £300,000 more than their north-of-the-river rivals Haringey, who scraped into second place with a paltry £606,903. It's an impressive feat for a road that's less than half a mile long and has been generated by a total of 16,800 tickets - that's just over 46 tickets per day, for anyone armed with a calculator.

As a result of such huge numbers, the complaint that parking fines are being used as illegal revenue-generators (against Department of Transport rules) in the wake of government spending cuts threatens to rear its head once again.

It's a hard conclusion to avoid when local authorities across the UK are boosting parking charges. Only a couple of weeks ago, Barnet council made the news when councillor Brian Coleman dismissed residents' protests against increased charges as 'hysterical nonsense' and boasted that he 'never knowingly undercharged' in relation to parking fees.

Last January, Westminster council were accused, following a leaked memo, of illegally raising revenue to plug a gap in finances through means of parking charges, while in November Westminster were once again censured by the European Commission for infringing EU law, despite making a statement suggesting they were cleared of any wrongdoing.

Other London roads to avoid parking on are Green Lanes (Haringey, £606,903), The Broadway in Ealing (£534,041), Kentish Town Road (Camden, £395,491) and the King's Road (£203,123).

Looks like Lambeth could be proposing the Lambeth Walk as a transport suggestion rather than a request for a song...

The top twenty most fine-hungry roads in London are as follows:

Clapham Park Road (Lambeth) - £914,040
Green Lanes (Haringey) - £606,903
The Broadway/Herbert Rd (Ealing) - £534,041
Kentish Town Road (Camden) - £395,491
Mare Street (Hackney) - £356,012
Chiswick High Road (Hounslow) - £351,416
Elephant Road (Southwark) - £327,472
Lea Bridge Road (Waltham Forest) - £250,270
King's Road (Kensington & Chelsea) - £203,123
Penge High Street (Bromley) - £194,005
Baker Street (Westminster) - £189,515
Uxbridge High Street (Hillingdon) - £172,075
London Road (Croydon) - £171,295
Hackney Road (Tower Hamlets) - £145,612
Macfarlane Road (H'smith & Fulham) - £135,319
Garratt Lane (Wandsworth) - £118,436
Wellington Street (Greenwich) - £75,726
Yew Grove (Barnet) - £47,910
Market Place Car Park (Havering) - £34,185
Grove Road (Sutton) - £22,686

[al1991]

46 a day! :O

[Mermaid]

And I suppose this is the net amount after challenges to "illegal" tickets. The guys must be on commission.

[M666 EVO]

Surely if you park illegally you should get a parking ticket?

I have been driving for 19 years, live in Central London and have never had a parking ticket. I can't see how difficult it is to park legally

Or am I missing something here?

[louiebaby]

Knowing that street, it is a pretty major road for traffic. The amount of cars that go along it and the hold-ups when it is blocked are pretty large. Although it's close to the High Street, due to how busy it is, I wouldn't think to park along it.

If the parking restrictions are well signposted, markings are clear, and by stopping people parking there they improve traffic flow, then fair play.

I'll swing by (on my pushbike) and check to see how obvious the restrictions are tonight.

[Denorth]

I am not sure why it is such a big issue. Is the fine for illegal parking in this street higher than in the others? Using calculator (as article suggested) I can see that it is something like £54 per ticket on average.
Not sure if it is higher or lower than the average park fine.



Something tells me that the article should state:

article said:

Other London roads to avoid illegal parking on are Green Lanes (Haringey, £606,903), The Broadway in Ealing (£534,041), Kentish Town Road (Camden, £395,491) and the King's Road (£203,123).

[Yodafone]

M666 EVO said:

Surely if you park illegally you should get a parking ticket?

I have been driving for 19 years, live in Central London and have never had a parking ticket. I can't see how difficult it is to park legally

Or am I missing something here?

Some of the London wardens are utter idiots, I always set a timer to start at the same time as I press the ticket print button, but this 1 warden tried to give me a ticket even dispite having 5 min's left.

The reason for it was that according to her parking fine machine I was late by 2 min's, luckly the ticket machine I got the ticket from was right next to me, made her look at the time on it, her machine was about 7 min's fast.

I explained I was in time she would not believe me at first, she was not happy at all when she took note of the time difference, got really angry at me.

I left with huge grin on my face and nice wave.

Edited by Yodafone on Tuesday 15th February 10:56

[M666 EVO]

Yodafone said:

Some of the London wardens are utter idiots

That's a given

I can imagine if they are on commission then they will try all sorts of tricks. Well done though, 1 up to the public!

[paulwd]

46 tickets a day!! are the people there stupid or are they so far up their own a***s they think the parking regulations don't apply them.

[FraserLFA]

Uxbridge High Street (Hillingdon) - £172,075

I've never seen a single car with a ticket on it down that road, and they still get that much. They're like bloody ninja's!

[A Scotsman]

Sounds like a business opportunity. I wonder if they'd sell any of those roads?

[Riggers]

FraserLFA said:

Uxbridge High Street (Hillingdon) - £172,075

I've never seen a single car with a ticket on it down that road, and they still get that much. They're like bloody ninja's!

Ninjas with CCTV cameras ...

[FraserLFA]

Do they not have to fix it to your widnscreen then?

[ads_green]

FraserLFA said:

Do they not have to fix it to your widnscreen then?

Depends.
Parked legally but expired/no ticket then I believe they need to issue a penalty ticket.

Parked illegally (where a ticket would make no difference - say on a double red line for example) then no ticket required and can work off picture evidence. It's why wardens carry digital cameras now.

[dudley71]

FraserLFA said:

Do they not have to fix it to your widnscreen then?

Not with CCTV.

Clapham Park Road has several bars and restaurants on it. I'm assuming the people being nabbed are cars dropping off passengers or minicabs. There's a also a section that includes a bus lane, at the Brixton end, next to a row of take-aways.

Edited by dudley71 on Tuesday 15th February 11:23

[FraserLFA]

dudley71 said:

Not with CCTV.

Clapham Park Road has several bars and restaurants on it. I'm assuming the people being nabbed are cars dropping off passengers or minicabs. There's a also a section that includes a bus lane, at the Brixton end, next to a row of take-aways.

Bloody hell. I didn't know they could do that. I wondered how they enforced double red lines...

Very sneaky CCTV Ninjas!

[esvoa]

Yes, that's a crucial point the PH article misses: one of the main reasons Clapham Park Road generates so many tickets is this:


(Photo from Evening Standard article on the same story).

No traffic wardens required...

[trickymex]

I work all over london as a mobile engineer and I've had 2 tickets in total, what you guys may not realise is that some of the signs that give the parking information ate very confusing, Fore st Edmonton is a good example, I got a ticket there, it's says on the sign that the parking restrictions are enforced between 9 am and 4pm if my memory Serves me correctly, so before or after these times there is no parking enforcement right? No in fact, it's a no parking area outside these hours but the sign does not explain that at all, it's a form of entrapment as far as I'm concerned, there is also a road I'm barnet that has such confusing parking regulations that I cannot make head nor tail of them, I don't park there for fear that I have misunderstood the parking restrictions instead I park a further mile up the road where it makes sense to me.



So ask yourself how many of these tickets have been issued due to the signage being unfathomable ?? I bet you it's a lot

[mgv8]

If you get a parking permit in Lambeth it has just going up to £185 from £120 two years ago.
The cost of the permit also now depends on emissions for engine size! Why did parking permits need to be environment based?

[trickymex]

Please forgive my spellng, grammar and general numptiness, I'm typing on my iPhone and the combination of the downright ridicules auto correct and my fingers that are in desperate need of a diet make me seem simpler than I actually am, if that's possible lol

[PaulMoor]

mgv8 said:

If you get a parking permit in Lambeth it has just going up to £185 from £120 two years ago.
The cost of the permit also now depends on emissions for engine size! Why did parking permits need to be environment based?

Don't you realise that its because bigger engined cars are the work of satan and the only people who own them are evil and rich and must be punished.