£1.25 million Shropshire parking fines ‘must be scrutinised’
A rise in the number of parking tickets being handed out to motorists by Shropshire Council's parking wardens was today attacked by politicians.
Labour's Councillor Alan Mosley, who represents the Castlefields and Ditherington ward on the council, said that he hoped the increase in tickets was not as a result of the council's worsening financial state.
A Freedom of Information request revealed that in 2014/15 10,567 parking charge notices or fixed penalty notices were issued within the authority's boundaries. But this rose by 46 per cent in 2016/17 to 15,404.
In three years the Conservative-led council raked in £1.25m in fines. The council says the money raised by fines funds the wardens as well as improvements to the county's transport network.
But Councillor Mosley said: "These are very significant increases and the factors involved should be scrutinised.
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"Shropshire Council has developed massive financial problems and I hope a policy of overly zealous enforcement to increase revenue is not the cause of the increase.
"There needs to be a good balance so that residents are treated fairly and visitors are not deterred from our towns.
"The big increase in successful challenges, with a large increase in the proportion of successful ones from 55 per cent to 66 per cent, should also be reviewed. These faulty notices represent significant administrative cost and much aggravation for the drivers involved.”
Bridgnorth's High Street was named the worst street in the county when it comes to good parking, with some traders saying the town's layout is 'not equipped' to deal with today's shopping demands.
From 2014/15 to 2016/17, 2,037 tickets were handed out for infractions on the street. That is almost 600 more than the next highest, St Mary's Place in Shrewsbury which had 1,454 in the same length of time.
Bridgnorth traders and businesses told of their experiences when it came to traffic on and around the High Street.
Becky Fiddler owns This, That & The Other, which is on the one-way system fed by the High Street at its southern end.
She said: "I'm quite lucky because I just live next door to the shop so I don't often have to drive around the centre of the town.
"But we get a lot of people in moaning about being ticketed.
"I think being an old market town, similar to Shrewsbury, the layout just isn't really equipped to deal with lots of cars.
"There are a lot of loading zones in the town which are ideal for traders, but some people do take the mick so they have to be quite strict with them."
