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Ealing's reliance on parking fine income betrays Labour party principles

Probably not a surprise that Ealing is one of the highest issuer of parking fines in the country according to a report on currently on this site. Judging by a ticket place on a car parked near my home, enforcement continues unabated despite the supposed lockdown.It is no longer worth pretending these fines don't act as a local tax with the revenue being used to cover the shortfall in Council Tax and government grant funding.PCNs are not adjusted for income so you get the same for parking in the wrong place at the wrong time if you have a Fiat Uno or a Ferrari. It will be argued that as the very poorest in society don't tend to own cars then as a tax this is a reasonably point. However, people who need to use cars for their work will tend to be on below or around average income with a large proportion of fines going to those in the building trade, carers, minicab or delivery drivers.Better off drivers probably make up the bulk of people who successfully appear these fines.Some will say that it is a voluntary tax and if you can't afford to pay it obey the rules. Our family have received two parking fines over the last decade in Ealing - in both cases we had thought we had parked correctly in areas we were familiar with but the signs were misleading. Appeals were dismissed out of hand and no attempt was made to improve the signage. Very few people parking in Ealing will do so on the basis they hope to get away with it because by now most are aware how intensive enforcement is so most fines are issued to people who have made a genuine mistake.This effectively means that the parking fines operate as a highly regressive tax something that is directly opposed to the founding principles of the Labour party. Yet it seems to be Labour authorities, like Ealing that use this most as a method of raising finance. I appreciate that this is a challenging time for council finances but the over dependence of this borough on this form of income is not healthy or fair on residents.

Mark Evans ● 1163d8 Comments