Drivers pay the price as the number of parking fines rockets

• Drivers in the London Borough of Westminster were worst hit with 345,245 parking fines issued in 2022, hot spots outside London include Bristol, Manchester, Edinburgh, and Glasgow
• Councils reported more than £165million in revenues from parking fines in 2022

Drivers are warned to be extra vigilant when parking as new research¹ from Churchill motor insurance found a 64 per cent increase in the number of parking fines (Penalty Charge Notice (PCN) or Excess Charge Notice (ECN)) issued by councils between 2020 and 2022.

Drivers in London were hardest hit by parking fines, the City of Westminster topped the list, with 345,245 fines issued in 2022. Followed by the London Borough of Camden (284,260 fines), and London Borough of Hackney (274,067 fines). In total, London boroughs accounted for 36.7 per cent of the parking fines issued in 2022. Outside of London, Bristol (267,412), Manchester (223,940), Edinburgh (167,474), and Glasgow (145,081) also saw a large number of penalty notices handed out. 

Table 1: Total amount of parking notices issued to London councils in 2022

Up to 30th June 2023, four councils had already issued over one hundred thousand Parking Enforcement Notices and were on track to meet the previous year’s number of notices, if not exceed the total number.

Table 2: Councils who have issued over one hundred thousand parking enforcement notices

In 2022, councils reported more than £180 million in revenues from parking fines, with eight councils generating more than £10 million in profit after paying contractors².

Table 3: Top 10 UK council net revenue generators in 2022

Nicholas Mantel, Head of Churchill motor insurance, comments: “Life can be hectic, it’s easy to lose track of time and overstay in a paid parking space or to briefly park on double yellow lines to quickly drop something off, but as our data reveals, councils are increasing the number of parking enforcement notices they issue so drivers need to be extra vigilant when parking to avoid these hefty fines.”

For more information on Churchill motor insurance please visit www.churchill.com.

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Notes to editors

1. FOI request into parking infringements made by Churchill to local councils in the UK in October 2023. Overall, 72 per cent of councils responded to the request.
2. Complete 2023 financial data for all councils not yet available

For further information please contact:

Hayley Saunders

Churchill PR Manager

Email: hayley.saunders@directlinegroup.co.uk

Churchill

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