News
Walsall drivers pay £95k in parking fines
Walsall Council have raked in a whopping £95,000 in off-street parking fines, a rise of £35,000 on the previous year, one of the largest increases in the region.
The figure, released by the Tax Payers Alliance covers a 12 month period up to April 2009 and does not include the income raised since the council took over control of on-street parking enforcement. In the 6 months since then, 14,500 tickets have been slapped on motorists, triple the numbers issued by police in an entire year. The fines from these tickets raised a further £720,000.
But in the wider West Midlands, parking fine revenue is 16% down with Sandwell reporting a drop of £70,000 and Wolverhampton £37,000.
Worried Walsall traders feel that the parking blitz is strangling town centre businesses and recent reports of war veterans, buses and even other traffic wardens being issued with tickets will simply drive shoppers away.
Walsall cabinet member for transport, Tom Ansell said: “All that we want is for people to comply with the regulations.”