Blackpool Council made £506,359 in car parking fines last year

In the past year, 21,692 parking notices were given out in Blackpool - an average of 59 every day - resulting in a whopping £506,359 raked in through such charges.

The average cost of a fine was £23.34, and the area with the highest number of fines was South Beach car park.

This means that Blackpool ranks 56th out of 185 local authorities.

Coun Mark Smith, cabinet member for business, enterprise and job creation, said: “Blackpool attracts millions of visitors every year, with around 1.3m motorists using our parking facilities each year. On average, the number of notices issued each year equates to less than two per cent of that total and our primary focus is on keeping our highways safe for all users and encouraging motorists to comply.

“There is no evidence to suggest that motorists are more likely to receive parking fines than any other place with similar levels of parking usage. We continue to invest in technology such as the new PayByPhone system which allows motorists to pay for their parking in a much more user-friendly manner.

“Parking income covers the cost of running the service, maintaining and investing in parking infrastructure and improving our highways network.”

The London borough of Newham is the parking fine capital of the UK, issuing nearly a quarter of a million fines over the space of a year and bringing in more than £10m in revenue, according to research from comparethemarket.com.

Nine of the 10 local authorities taking in the most cash from parking fines last year were in Greater London, with each council collecting more than £4 million in revenue. Outside of London, the Glasgow and Birmingham were the local authorities most likely to issue a ticket.

On average, local authorities issued nearly 23,000 parking fines at a rate of 63 per day.

Dan Hutson, head of motor at comparethemarket.com said: “Parking fine revenues are a cash cow for many local authorities. Up and down the country drivers are regularly being caught out by tight parking restrictions. With the third lockdown now in place, we would encourage drivers to take extra care and attention when parking up their car to ensure they avoid a parking fine.”