Lincolnshire County Council raised £2million in fines but received a £2.3million bill for enforcement

Parking charges could rise in Lincolnshire in a bid to pay for the cost of enforcement, the county council has said.

Lincolnshire County Council’s parking services cost £300,000 more than they brought in last year.

The authority says the bigger bill can be explained by the rising cost of enforcement, while the Penalty Charge Notices have remained fixed by the government for years.

Around 47,000 tickets were issued in Lincolnshire during 2024/25 and this raised £2million – substantially less than the £2.3million cost.

A meeting of the Highways and Transport committee today (Monday, October 20) heard the current system “wasn’t sustainable”.

Other parts of the country have trialled raising charges from £50 and £70 (depending on the offence) up to £110 and £150, although no national decision has been made.

A report has warned the council may have to scale back its enforcement if the government doesn’t put charges up within the next 12 months.

However, the councillor for highways says he doesn’t think it will come to that.

Coun Michael Cheyne (Reform UK) told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: “The council employs third parties to run our parking enforcement, and we’ve had to absorb employment costs and national hikes, plus infrastructure costs.

“Over the last year, that’s added up to a deficit.

“Given that the [PCN charges] haven’t been raised for some time, it’s an inevitability. But that’s down to the central government, not us.”

Coun Cheyne said the he did not think it would get to the point where enforcement will be scaled back but promised that the authority would do everything it could.

He went onto say: “People look at enforcement as hammering the motorist, it’s not really.

“The whole point of restrictions is to ensure traffic flow is adequate, we have to maintain that otherwise there will be bottlenecks worse than we have in towns at the moment.”

The council has put money aside to deal with enforcement deficits, but this would be exhausted in two years if they continue at the same level.

Conservative councillor Charlotte Vernon said during the meeting: “It’s clear the current system is sustainable long-term, and we can’t go on like we are.”