Council pockets nearly £1 million from parking tickets in three years

Wigan Council has raised nearly £1 million from parking fines in the last three years, it has been revealed.

Wiganers have progressively seen more fines slapped on their cars for incorrect parking since the start of 2020, a Freedom of Information request (FOI) submitted by the Local Democracy Reporting Service explained. The council claimed this increase was due to the easing of lockdown restrictions and the effort to reduce obstructions of emergency service vehicles.

In 2022, the council took in £375,677 from 13,196 fines, the highest in the three-year period.

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Overall, the council has claimed £930,262 from 33,098 fines between the start of 2020 and the end of 2022, the FOI found.

In the year the Covid pandemic broke out, the smallest number of fines were distributed compared to the following two years, with 9,398 parking charge notices generating £259,878. The next year (2021) saw the council pocket £294,707 from 1,0504 fines.

The local authority states that the income gathered from these tickets helps to fund local services as well as road maintenance. Additionally, the council claims this also allows them to offer free weekend parking in Wigan and Leigh town centres.

“During the pandemic in 2020, Wigan Council reduced parking enforcement to key routes only, to ensure that emergency services were not obstructed,” a spokesperson for Wigan Council said. “As lockdown restrictions eased, parking enforcement in other parts of the borough had to resume to ensure our network continues to run safely and efficiently, which can be seen in the increase in fines issued for illegal parking.

“Any income generated through PCNs is always reinvested in local