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
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