High volume of tickets from one road in the borough
Research by local Conservatives has revealed that 1 in 8 of all parking tickets issued in the Borough are written on Greenford Road.
Detailed analysis of the statistics shows that in a typical month about 2,000 parking tickets (Penalty Charge Notices (PCNs)) are issued on Greenford Road out of roughly 16,000 per month issued across the Borough.
The annual value of these tickets is £1.5 million. 98% of these tickets are issued automatically by CCTV. Most of the tickets are given out for stopping on the Greenford Road/Otter Road yellow box junction, driving in the bus lanes and stopping on loading bays and the taxi rank. The Greenford Road/Otter Road yellow box junction on its own is worth at least £500K a year to the Council.
Cllr Phil Taylor, Conservative spokesman for Transport and Environment, said:“It is important that drivers follow the Highway Code and that residents consider their neighbours when parking. That said, it does look like Ealing Council is too reliant on giving out parking tickets on Greenford Road. More work needs to be done to improve signing and to help people avoid tickets. The Council’s objective should be compliance not income.”
Cabinet member for Transport and Environment, Cllr Bassam Mahfouz has responded: '' We have been clear and up front about changing the culture of revenue raising that was synonymous with Cllr Taylor's reign as the previous Parking cabinet member.
''We have reviewed our Yellow Box Junctions, ended midnight enforcement blitzes and placed additional signage to ensure we are enforcing according to the rules and raise awareness amongst drivers in order to make sure are open and transparent about what we are enforcing and why.
''Cllr Taylor was responsible for an embarrassing blunder where he had to refund £1m in unenforceable PCNs having ignored the advice residents and I had given him at the time. We've been picking up the pieces, listening to what the issues are and taking action which has meant the overall number of PCNs have actually reduced under this Labour administration.''
26th October 2012