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£58k owed in parking fines in Inverness


By Val Sweeney

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Parking tickets worth almost £50k were written off last year.
Parking tickets worth almost £50k were written off last year.

FEWER parking tickets were issued to motorists in Inverness last year than the previous year – but the amount due to be recouped from unpaid fines during the year increased.

It comes as parking enforcement staff returned to normal duties across the region last Friday. Staff had been redeployed since mid-March due to the pandemic.

Figures obtained from Highland Council under a Freedom of Information request revealed a total of 7277 penalty charge notices (PCN) were issued during 2019 – a drop from 8319 the previous year. But last year’s outstanding balance from unpaid charges stood at £58,079, whereas the previous year it was £50,633.

The figures reveal that the total value of PCNs issued in the city last year amounted to £314,040. Payments received totalled £206,430 while tickets totalling £49,830 were written off, with reasons including the owner had gone away, there was no trace at the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency, the vehicle was foreign and the owner had no money or assets.

There were also errors in issuing the PCN – for example, a valid pay and display ticket had actually been bought, the vehicle was loading or unloading, the driver had a valid residents’ parking permit or a processing mistake occurred.

Councillor Bet McAllister (Inverness Central) said it was disappointing that there was an outstanding balance of £58,000 last year.

“That is a heck of a lot of money,” she said. “It is money which could be well spent. I think people need to be aware Highland Council is losing a lot of money.”

She said in the case of foreign vehicles, it would cost the council a lot of money to chase up the unpaid fines. She added motorists sometimes got caught out by paying for a ticket, but then inadvertently exceeded the allotted time.

“You pay to park for an hour and then get held up,” she said. “I know it has happened to some councillors who park in the city centre and then come back and find they have gone over the time.”

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