Top firms hit by £1m a year parking fines

Businesses are being hit with crippling levels of parking fines in London, figures show today.

Five firms - dubbed the "millionaires' club" and including DHL and BT Openreach - are being fined more than £1 million a year each.

Others are paying out more than £100,000 a year, according to a Freight Transport Association study which claims about half the fines are "unjust".

But councils insist they are enforcing the law correctly and say some firms have been telling their drivers to ignore parking restrictions.

The total bill facing companies such as John Lewis, Waitrose and Sainsbury's Online is about £500 million a year, the study shows. But firms spend another £100 million processing and appealing against fines.

One leading courier firm spent £685,000 in a year on clerks to deal with parking penalties. Another moved administration of fines to India to manage costs. The Freight Transport Association said the cost was filtering down to the consumer and fuelling inflation.

It called on London Councils to rethink the targeting of commercial operators. It also urged officials to establish "critical-delivery zones" where traffic authorities should help rather than hinder suppliers of goods such as food, groceries and clothing.

Hotspots where fines are being issued include Westminster, Camden, the City of London and Kensington and Chelsea. "The number and level of fines is becoming a problem of epic proportions," said Gordon Telling, the association's head of policy in London. "The cost is passed down the system to the customer.

"We are talking about half a billion pounds of extra taxes on all of us when we pay for food, drink or clothing. Around one half of it is unnecessary as the fines are unfair."

The association claimed it had detected an increase in "ghost"parking tickets - ones that are not actually fixed to a vehicle. Reminders for these are sent by post days later, leaving drivers little chance of remembering the circumstances.

The association said wardens often ignored the fact that drivers were loading or unloading - which exempts them from tickets - and that wardens were following vehicles in order to ticket them when they stopped.

Companies have also claimed that councils refuse to accept deliveries are being carried out even when the correct paperwork is produced in evidence.

London Councils defended the actions of its members. Nick Lester, its transport director, said local authorities were willing to talk to the Freight Transport Association. He added: "They are not being picked on, but by the nature of their work lorries are often on yellow lines. Even when they are legitimately loading or unloading it can be very difficult to tell if that is the case or not.

"Unfortunately some firms tell their drivers to ignore any restrictions and park where they can."