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Inverness bears burden of parking fines


By Scott Maclennan

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More than a thousand tickets were issued to drivers parked in Inverness city centre’s Church Street last year.
More than a thousand tickets were issued to drivers parked in Inverness city centre’s Church Street last year.

Motorists in Inverness have been issued more parking tickets over the last 12 months than the rest of the Highlands combined.

According to Highland Council figures, a total of 10,045 penalty charge notices (PCNs) were handed out across the region, with city drivers collectively receiving 7857 of these – more than 78 per cent.

A route just half a mile long – encompassing Church Street, Academy Street, Union Street and Queensgate – in the city centre accounts for 15 per cent of all tickets issued.

A total of 515 PCNs were issued in the Highland Council headquarters car park while drivers using the nearby Eden Court site got 49 and 314 were handed out along Ness Bank and Ness Walk.

Some of the key city institutions saw some of the highest levels of parking enforcement. Areas surrounding Inverness Castle clocked up 658 tickets, including the taxi rank, Raining’s Stairs and Inverness Town House.

A total of 1130 tickets were issued to vehicles in Church Street alone.

In stark contrast, no drivers in Nairn were ticketed in the past year while just one apiece were issued in Thurso and Rosemarkie, with four each in Alness and Wick and five in Dingwall.

Highland Council said the streets with the most tickets were the busiest and “therefore require more regular patrols” while in outlying areas PCNs were issued in response to complaints.

Inverness Central councillor Richard Laird said: “Personally speaking, I am fairly relaxed about the number of tickets being issued because I think the council are quite fair in their approach to parking tickets.

“I don’t think they use it as a money spinner the way some councils do and they are even-handed when it comes to handing out tickets.”

In 2017-18 a total of 9854 PCNS were issued region-wide, generating £293,056 while Inverness received 8426 tickets. In 2018-19, 10,045 were issued, generating more than £229,000 so far, with the income for April still to be calculated.

Inverness Business Improvement District manager Mike Smith said: “Obviously this is of great concern to BID and our members’ businesses who want to ensure the best possible access for their customers who are the essential footfall.

“While we do understand there certainly cannot be uncontrolled parking, we think that the council needs to be talking about how we can better provide for the travelling needs of our customers.”

Earlier this month, Highland Council announced parking enforcement will be rolled out to more than a dozen locations including Nairn, Dingwall, Grantown, Invergordon, Ullapool and Wick.


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