Council hit by £47,000 loss on parking enforcement

The county council has been hit by its first loss on civil parking enforcement since it started in 2012.

The £47,321 deficit in the financial year ending in March is blamed in part on the success of the patrols because fewer drivers are breaking the rules.

There was a £67,898 surplus in 2016/17 and a £308,000 surplus in 2015/16.

Coun Richard Davies, the council executive member for highways and transport, says there are no plans to reduce the level of enforcement.

He said: "As predicted when the service first launched, over time, people have begun to realise that, if they park inappropriately, they could well get a ticket.

"As a result, we're seeing less problem parking and so fewer tickets being issued. At the same time, we've seen the costs of providing the service raise with inflation.

"The combination of these two trends has led to the service making a loss for the first time this year.

"However, we recognise this is a valuable service, helping keep traffic moving, particularly in our busy town centres, so we have no plans to reduce the level of enforcement."

News of the loss is revealed in a report to the Highways and Transport Scrutiny Committee, which meets on Monday.

The report reveals just over 30,000 parking tickets were handed to drivers across the county in 2017/18.

Income from penalty charges was £992,094.

The report shows the number of patrols in towns and villages with Spalding seeing enforcement officers on 299 days.

In South Holland, Holbeach was the next highest on 64 days.

Among other places visited, with the number of days in brackets, were: Bourne (44), Crowland (9), Deeping St James (10), Donington (10), Fleet (1) Gosberton (2), Long Sutton (10), Market Deeping (13), Moulton (1), Pinchbeck (2) and Sutton Bridge (3).