Nearly half of parking tickets were unpaid

If the figures are skewed by a small number of individuals with lots of outstanding fines the question has to be asked as to why the council are not or have not taken action.

Scarborough Evening News
By Martin Herron
18 September 2009

NEARLY half the parking tickets issued in Scarborough last year were unpaid, it has been revealed.
Of 22,413 tickets handed out, 9,467 were not paid – more than 42 per cent of the total.

The authority's parking services made a profit of more than £500,000 in 2008-09, with £573,549 of its income coming from penalty charge notices.
Scarborough's traffic wardens, now civil enforcement officers, issued more than £500,000 worth of unpaid tickets between March 2008 and March 2009.
Scarborough's parking blackspot was Albemarle Crescent, where 853 parking notices were issued, and the most ticketed car park was St Thomas Street Upper, where 414 tickets were issued.
Cllr Andrew Backhouse, Scarborough Council's cabinet member with responsibility for parking services, said the high unpaid figure needed to be put in context and that the actions of a small group of drivers tended to skew them."I know of one individual who has over 100 unpaid tickets. The impact of a few individuals like this can have a serious effect on figures – there could be around five or six people responsible for 600 to 800 unpaid tickets.
"The amount unpaid looks bad on paper but you must remember it's a snapshot and many of the fines will have been paid by now."