A parking fine is given out every four seconds as tickets dished out by private firms rockets to 8.4million in a year
- The number of parking tickets issued in the UK has rocketed over the past year
- 8.4million tickets were handed out by private parking firms, up by 24 per cent
- The astonishing numbers means one ticket is handed out every four seconds
- Parking tickets can cost drivers up to £100 for every offence committed
Private parking firms handed out 1.6million more tickets in the last year compared with the previous 12 months, latest figures reveal.
The number has rocketed to 8.4million, meaning they were being issued at the astonishing rate of one every four seconds.
This figure for the financial year 2019-20 was 24 per cent up on the 6.8million tickets issued in 2018-19, according to research by the RAC Foundation. The tickets can cost drivers up to £100 a time.
8.4million parking tickets were handed out by private parking firms over the last year, an increase of 1.6million
Parking companies obtain records from the DVLA licensing agency to chase motorists for alleged infringements in private car parks such as at shopping centres, leisure facilities and motorway service stations.
Steve Gooding, of the foundation, which analysed government data, said: ‘Anyone who received a private parking ticket last year would have been in plentiful company.
‘Yet again the number of keeper addresses released by the DVLA to private parking companies has shot up, this time by almost a quarter.
‘To put the numbers in context, if every one of the 8.4million releases came with a ticket to the next Glastonbury festival, Michael Eavis would have to re-run the event over 60 times to fit everyone in.’
In March 2019, a new law came into effect aiming to bring rogue parking firms into line or put them out of business.
The astonishing statistics mean one parking ticket is handed out every four seconds in the UK
The legislation was designed to lead to the creation of a code of conduct. However, this has not yet happened.
Mr Gooding added: ‘The hard graft of creating a new code of practice for the industry is under way. This will go out for public consultation before being presented to Parliament.
‘But the code is just one part of the new framework that needs to be put in place, including a single appeals body and independent scrutiny of the private parking trade associations and their members.’
Each parking ticket can cost a driver £100 a time, while the number of parking tickets issued sat at just one million ten years ago
A decade ago in 2009-10, the number of parking tickets issued by private firms was just over 1million while the figure for 2006-7 was only 272,000.
It has risen relentlessly since then to 1.89million in 2012-13: and 4.71million in 2016-17 before reaching current levels.
The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency charges private firms £2.50 to access each record of a driver alleged to have broken parking rules.
The agency says the fee is set so it can recover the cost of providing the data and it does not make any money from the process.