Finally a Council admits

[mikeymack2002]

Finally a Council admits in the press that its "income" is falling dramatically and needs to increase enforcement hours and to issue even more PCN's to retain its Income level.

 

 

This is a story on "Scoop" recently where a Council is moaning like crazy that its income from "Fines/Enforcement" is dwindling far to rapidly. This is due to motorist's parking legally and causing serious hardship for the said Council.

 

Parking fines plummet by £240k as tickets cut

 

The number of parking tickets issued in Staffordshire has plummeted - resulting in a loss of £240,000 in fines.

 

 

 

Now more traffic wardens will patrol close to schools and restricted parking hours extended under new plans to make the service break even.

From next year, Stoke City Council will manage the service across the county for the authority with the aim of reducing costs. Currently each district council operates its parking on the county's behalf.

Responsibility for managing parking fines was handed to the county council by Staffordshire Police seven years ago after the offence was decriminalised.

 

But it has been running at an increasing loss across most of the region, with the county council underwriting the deficit. More motorists obeying the law has been given as the reason.

The number of penalty notices issued between April and September fell to 3,283 compared with the 3,926 handed out in the same six-month period last year. The tickets were split evenly between off-road and on-street parking.

The drop equates to more than 16 per cent fewer penalty notices being written and, of these, almost a fifth were cancelled after appeal.

Since its introduction, the total number of notices issued has dropped dramatically, from more than 63,000 in its first year to fewer than 46,000 in 2012-13.

The full story can be read here

http://www.expressandstar.com/news/2014/12/09/number-of-parking-tickets-issued-in-staffordshire-plummeting-resulting-in-240k-loss/

 

 

Stories like this are found here http://www.scoop.it/t/lacef-news

 

 

Any thoughts please?

[ericsbrother]

I love the quote that "there is an increasing local demand for enforcement" and how this is inflated into introducing new controls. Typical bureaucratic thinking-people obey the law so we change the law to turn the law-abiding into criminals because that makes us money. The same arguments have been used in many other situations. Banning target pistol shooting was suppsed to make the streets safer and within a year gun crime had doubled. If they really want to make parking control self-funding do away with it altogether and no enforcement costs will be created so no income needed.

[Conniff]

Yep, lets move the goalposts.

[mikeymack2002]

Using a motorist for income is so unfair, then to use the revenue to run a Council is beyond belief so glad I do not drive anymore

[green_and_mean]

Using a motorist for income is so unfair, then to use the revenue to run a Council is beyond belief so glad I do not drive anymore

 

 

Obviously you failed to understand the report in the paper!! The Council make no income from parking that's what 'making a loss' means. The story is about enforcement being passed from the local Council over to the County council to make it cost effective and break even.