Ministers today accused London’s councils of “routinely ripping off” motorists as new figures showed four million parking tickets were issued last year.
Drivers have been hit with 4,080,000 penalty charge notices in the past 12 months, which is a slight annual rise and comes despite Government calls to for greater leniency.
Two of the three most active authorities — Camden council and Transport for London — both handed out more tickets in 2013/14 than in the previous year.
The UK’s richest parking authority, Westminster, issued 449,139 tickets, compared to 456,000 last year.
High Streets minister Penny Mordaunt said: “These new figures show how drivers across London are being routinely ripped off, and parking charges and fines have become a cash machine for councils, particularly due to the industrial use of CCTV spy cars. This is in defiance of parliament which has said that on-street parking cannot be used as a general source of revenue.
“Such unfair practices are harming local shops and have just driven people to shop on the internet or in out-of-town shopping centres. This is why the Government is taking action to clamp down on these parking stealth taxes, and is standing up for local shoppers and high streets.”
Umbrella group London Councils, which represents the 32 boroughs and collated the statistics, highlighted a slight fall in tickets for low-level offences such as overstaying a meter, even thought the total ticket numbers have increased.
There were 3,087,186 tickets for high-level offences such as parking on double yellow lines, stopping at a bus stop or pedestrian crossings or double parking. Lesser offences such as overstaying time on a parking meter or not parking within markings of a bay fell to 992,516 tickets.
But campaigners condemned the figures from London Councils, saying the authorities were “acting with impunity”. Paul Pearson, of penaltychargenotice.co.uk, said: “The Government has put a lot of pressure on councils to act reasonably over the last year with some ministers saying that councils are abusing their powers. The Mary Portas report highlighted how parking enforcement and charges harm high streets.”
A spokesman for London councils said: “London’s councils are acting reasonably in enforcing the law. Effective parking and traffic enforcement is essential in protecting the safety of pedestrians and other road users, as well as reducing congestion and pollution.”
