Figures released by the body that handles parking fine appeals across the UK show that motorists, including van drivers, are contributing more to council coffers via parking tickets than ever before.

The Traffic Penalty Tribunal which oversees appeals against parking fines throughout the country, with the exception of London, reports that councils in England and Wales issued over 4 million tickets in the 12 months leading up to March 2009, the latest data available. The figure is a dramatic increase on previous figures and is almost double the amount of those issued as recently as 2001 a fact put down to councils taking over parking control from the police.

The number of van drivers actually featured in the data is unknown but many professional drivers now openly admit that parking fines collected while performing their daily duties are becoming more expensive than their commercial vehicle insurance policy and there is little they can do about it. Motoring organisations throughout the UK are united in complaining about the level of penalties being handed out and a number are deeply suspicious that local authorities are using parking fines to bolster the civic coffers.

Stephen Glaister, a traffic expert working for the RAC Foundation, noted that “The law does not allow local authorities to use parking as a means of making money – however hard pressed their budgets. Local authorities that are showing a big surplus in their parking budgets should look carefully at every area of their operation – particularly in the back office where challenges are considered.”

In fact more than 14,000 parking tickets were contested by those unfortunate to have been handed fines with over half of the motorists winning their case and having their fines quashed.

A spokesman for the Local Government Associations Economy and Transport board denied they were using motorists as a “cash cow” saying: “We know parking restrictions are never going to popular but these restrictions are in place to keep people safe, keep traffic moving and ensure parking spaces are available to those who need them. Any money received from parking fines has to be spent on transport improvements which benefit motorists, pedestrians and other road users.”