Parking ticket slump leaves city facing £1.2m revenue shortfall

Published on Wednesday 15 December 2010 11:00

A SLUMP in the number of parking tickets issued across the Capital has seen council bosses lose more than £1.2 million in revenue.

&#149 A parking attendant in George Street, the most ticketed street in Scotland and branded a 'honey pot'

Parking attendants handed out fewer tickets throughout the year but also saw a huge drop in the number of fines issued over November and December due to the wintry weather.

Average figures for the year to November showed enforcers handed out around 215,000 tickets, earning the city council 6m, down from 6.5m in the previous 12 months.

The council also lost a further 700,000 between November 28 and December 13 due to the inability to enforce parking restrictions in the snow.

The figures also showed parking attendants had handed out fewer than 1000 tickets a month on George Street in the year to November.

The most ticketed street in Scotland, George Street has been dubbed a "honey pot" for enforcers, but has seen the average numbers of fines fall from more than 1750 a month in 2005 to 945 a month.

Business leaders said Edinburgh's main shopping streets were still suffering from the "hangover" of the city's tram works, which had seen many motorists opt for out-of-town shopping centres instead.

After George Street, the two next most-ticketed streets were Chalmers Street and Chambers Street, which earned the council 113,000 and 102,000 in the period from the start of October 2009 to the end of October last year.

Drivers issued with a ticket face a 60 fine, or 30 if paid within 14 days.

Michael Dixon, a spokesman for the Federation of Small Businesses, said: "There's the hangover from the tram works, but there's more to it than that.

"Something we've been saying for a while about the city centre is that some of the efforts to boost activity need to be grounded in a more realistic sense of what the economic situation is.

"We've been pointing to the fact that retail occupancy is down, parking is down and parking fines are on a downward trend as well.

"However, I'm sure there's also an appreciation among some drivers that George Street, in particular, is a honey pot for the parking attendants."

The city council intends to introduce a new clamping regime, with around 100 drivers in the Capital currently having 20 or more outstanding tickets, depriving the council of more than 100,000 in lost revenue.

However, parking bosses argue that the overall fall in the number of tickets reflects the fact that drivers are following the rules more closely.

A council spokesman said: "The number of pay and display parking vouchers bought this year has remained steady but the average payment has risen, suggesting that drivers are paying closer attention to the regulations. "It is no surprise, then, that the number of parking tickets issued has gone down."

Hitting the skids

Money raised from parking tickets Oct 09 - end Oct 10

George Street - 340,041

Chalmers Street - 113,087

Chambers Street - 102,326

Bruntsfield Place - 89,717

Morningside Road - 80,645

St Andrew Square - 79,240

George Square - 77,000

Albany Street - 50,887

Picardy Place - 49,250

Queen Street - 46,295