Massive rise in traffic fines

A record 5.9million parking and bus lane fines were issued in London in the past year, up more than 500,000 on the previous year, figures reveal today.

More drivers than ever before were given £80 or £100 penalties after being caught parking illegally in the 33 boroughs or driving in bus lanes.

The main reason for the dramatic rise is that more councils are enforcing bus lanes with CCTV cameras. Last year eight authorities including Transport for London were policing main roads. This year the number leapt to 20, with more to come.

A total of 757,512 motorists were fined for "trespassing" in bus lanes in the past year, up from 426,945 the year before. A rise in the number of controlled parking zones is also blamed for the leap in fines, recorded in a report by the Association of London Government out today.

The RAC Foundation suggested "over-zealous" councils were boosting fines revenue to offset an anticipated fall in takings from parking meters as fewer drivers enter central London.

Today's figures show 5,936,391 penalties were issued in the year to 31 March, compared with 5,435,594 for the previous year.

Of those, 5,178,879 were for illegal parking, compared with 4,929,692 the year before.

Penalties range from £80 in outer London to ?100 in inner London, with a 50 per cent discount for early payment in both areas.

Together, the parking and bus lane fines have a face value of nearly £542 million. In practice, half of all motorists pay within a fortnight at the discounted rate and 20 per cent of fines go uncollected. This means the boroughs are likely to have received about ?250 million in fines in 2003/04.

The report reveals that Westminster issued the most parking fines: 1,051,798 compared with 976,476 the year before. The second largest number of fines was issued by TfL, which penalised 307,706 motorists for driving in bus lanes. Camden imposed the third largest number of parking fines (446,212) followed by Kensington and Chelsea on 291,445.

The borough that sent out the most bus lane fines was Newham on 70,437.

Nick Lester, ALG's transport and environment director, said the figures sent a "clear warning" to offenders that they were likely to get a ticket. "Parking illegally causes hazards for all road users including pedestrians," he said.

Edmund King, executive director of the RAC Foundation, said: " Perhaps councils are beginning to make up for the loss in revenue from parking meters.

" Given the rise, motorists will want to see more money spent on repairing roads and parking facilities."

Westminster said parking fines had fallen since March when figures were compiled, after a softening in its regime. Councillor Colin Barrow said: "We

accepted at the start of this year that we had got things wrong and have been working with our contractors, NCP, to put them right.

"Ticket numbers are down 15 per cent and complaints down 50 per cent."

The number of appeals against "unfair" penalties rose from 42,940 to 47,438 - 0.8 per cent of all fines, the same proportion as before. The number of appeals won fell by 919 to 27,072.

? Dishing out hefty fines for driving illegally in bus lanes appears to be radically changing motorists' behaviour, analysis of the report reveals. When Croydon first focused banks of CCTV cameras on its bus lanes in 2001 it caught 60 , 000 lawbreaking motorists. In the past year this dropped to 25,000.