Are Parking Fines a Government Get-Rich-Quick-Scheme or Are They Legitimate?

Government parking fines, permit fines and speeding fines are, to the public’s expense’ all very legitimate.

But the latest figures show councils across the UK have been raking in the profits as drivers were hit with £1.6 billion in parking fines alone last year. This figure sits as a record revenue to councils, as they made £840 million in profits, across 353 locations in the UK.

This is a 10% jump from the previous year, which had already seen a 40% jump since 2012-13. The biggest rise in profits comes from street parking and permits only fines. A report released in 2016 did show that councils had increased their fines by around 51% since 2011. This is often case the result of cuts to other budgets.

The figures, released as part of an analysis for the RAC Foundation, show that the government’s local councils are very much one-upping drivers with fines across the nation. According to the Daily Mail, Tory MP Sir Greg Knight recently accused a number of UK councils of using parking as a “revenue-raising exercise” and portrayed the rise in profits from such fines as a “stealth tax.”

Sir Greg says councils “need to reflect whether their charges are fair and reasonable.”

“In some cases, higher charges may be driving more motorists to shun cities and towns and to go to out of town shopping centres where parking is plentiful and free. Councils should be particularly careful before increasing residents’ parking fees – because here motorists don’t have a choice where they park. It could be argued this is a stealth tax on residents.”

Although councils set out legitimate fine systems, so that driving and parking can be managed in the most efficient and fair way for all drivers, increasing fines to these profits extremes raises some questions in regards to the aim of said systems.

Did you get fined at all this year, or did you get your money’s worth of fair parking? Let us know in the comments below.