A city centre street has been shown to be the worst for parking fines in Edinburgh, according to recent data.
Perhaps not so surprisingly, George Street has racked up the most charges in the city, after drivers carried out a large number of violations.
The latest penalty notice charges data available from The City of Edinburgh Council showed that the key thoroughfare, which is planned to be pedestrianised, has been catching out drivers the most.
As well as this, research by Able Systems, which provides mobile printers for traffic wardens, discovered that Edinburgh also handed out the most parking fines overall in the UK.
The number of parking fines handed out by the council has gradually increased in recent years. In 2019, 191,479 tickets were issued to motorists in Edinburgh, meaning the city handed out the most parking fines in the UK that year.
Glasgow was second up in the parking fine table, but still had handed out around 40,000 less tickets than in the capital.
This was followed by Birmingham and Brighton, with the full table for ticket numbers below:
1 - Edinburgh - 191,479 parking fines
2 - Glasgow - 152,579
3 - Birmingham - 145,910
4 - Brighton 122,098
5 - Liverpool - 103,396
6 - Bristol - 101,619
7 - Leeds - 94,972
8 - Southampton - 84,986
9 - Newcastle - 82,751
10 - Leicester - 78,418
It comes as Edinburgh has now also introduced a Sunday parking charge from 12pm-6.30pm, after the council stated that the day has become just as busy for traffic as any other.
Commenting on the research, Mike Houghton, Commercial Manager, Able Systems said; “Our research identified the areas and even the streets in the UK that appear to have the biggest issues with illegal parking. Many of the roads which receive the most tickets tend to consistently do so over a number of years – which indicates where councils may focus future efforts to reduce problem parking.
“Surprisingly there are a number of vehicles in the UK that have been hit with more than 100 tickets in 12 months – with a motorist in Reading receiving 205 tickets. Edinburgh’s worst offender received just 45 in comparison.”
Data for 2020 was not requested due to the impact of lockdowns on travel within the city which has likely meant no direct comparison can be made from data gathered during the pandemic.
