Parking fines spike by nearly a third
The number of parking tickets issued by private companies in the UK rose by 29% in the year leading up to March.
According to data from the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA), a record 11.1 million parking tickets were issued in the 12 months up to March.
This is up from 8.6 million parking fines in the preceding 12 months and works out to more than 30,400 parking fines every day, at a cost to drivers of about £1.1bn.
The report comes following accusations that private companies are scrapping payment machines in favour of app-based schemes, with confusing instructions along with excessively high fees and aggressive debt collection.
The Government introduced new legislation to counter this, the Private Parking Code of Practice, but that was then withdrawn in 2022 after a legal challenge from private parking companies.
