Ever wondered if there’s a region or a county in England that hands out more parking tickets than others? Maybe it’s because they have more parking wardens, or perhaps their parking wardens are simply more willing to give out more tickets, or – of course – there may just be more motorists who don’t abide by parking rules and laws…
Well, we decide to carry out some investigations, and found out which counties have given out the most (and least) amount of parking tickets this year, so you know where to be extra careful when out driving!
We carried out a Freedom of information request
We emailed all county councils across England with a Freedom of Information request to find out what their parking ticket situation is like.
We asked two key questions:
- How many parking tickets have been handed out by your team in 2021 so far?
- How many parking tickets have been handed out by your team across the past 12 months? From September 2020 to August 2021?
Durham County Council has handed out the most parking tickets this year
25 different county councils responded to our request for information. We found that Durham County Council has handed out the highest number of parking tickets this year so far, followed by Dorset Council and Lancashire County Council.
Of 515,015 parking tickets handed out, these three county councils accounted for 21% of those!
How does that compare to the recent 12-month period?
As you know, we also asked how many parking tickets each county council handed out between September 2020 to August 2021.
What we found is that the same five county councils have handed out the highest amount of parking tickets, just in a slightly different order:
- Durham County Council
- North Yorkshire County Council
- Buckinghamshire Council
- Oxfordshire County Council
- East Sussex County Council
Somerset County Council has handed out the least amount of parking tickets
While we were able to find out the counties with the highest distribution rate of parking tickets, our research also revealed the counties that have handed out the least amount.
Either parking wardens in Somerset are the friendliest, or drivers are generally much better at parking. Somerset County Council has handed out the least amount, followed by Staffordshire County Council and Derbyshire County Council.
Between them, they’ve handed out just 6% of all this year’s parking tickets.
How to avoid getting a parking ticket
If you want to avoid getting a parking ticket, be sure to adhere to the local parking rules and laws:
- Don’t park on double yellow lines
- Don’t park on a dropped curb
- Don’t park over a driveway or entrance
- Don’t park in a ‘permit holders’ spot or loading bay
- Don’t park on private land without permission
- Be sure to pay for your parking when in a pay-and-display parking space
- With payment parking machines that require you to input your vehicle registration, make sure this is entered accurately
What to do if you get a parking ticket
If you have a genuine reason to contest the parking ticket, the ticket itself will contain all of the information you require to appeal against the decision. The payment deadline date will go on hold as soon as you make a claim and until you hear back with a response.
If you are not planning to contest your parking ticket, you often have a short window (roughly two weeks) to pay and benefit from a reduced fine. After this though, you must pay the fine in full.
If you do not pay your fine, you should know that you will likely be chased, or your case may even end up in court.
Like research like this? We carried out another Freedom of Information request recently looking into just how bad England’s pothole crisis is, which also uncovered some interesting findings.
Feel you could help teach learner drivers to ensure they know the rules and laws of the road and don’t get a parking ticket along the way? It’s easy to learn how to become a driving instructor and help learner drivers to know everything they need to know about driving. We offer the very best in driving instructor training and are always on the hunt for new driving instructors to join our national driving school and provide driving lessons.
