Third of parking fines handed out are unpaid
Nearly 1,100 parking tickets have been handed out by a council in the last six months – but almost a third have not been paid, new figures show.
South Staffordshire Council's civil enforcement officers slapped 1,097 drivers with penalty charge notices between April and September, and 770 paid up.
Fifteen per cent of tickets were cancelled and a further 15 per cent are still being processed.
It means the authority collected around £24,500 from parking tickets during that period.
It comes as it emerged Staffordshire County Council is considering an overhaul of its parking enforcement.
Currently the scheme is overseen by the Staffordshire Parking Board and delivered by district councils. They employ enforcement officers who are responsible for issuing parking tickets to drivers who flaunt yellow line regulations or cause obstructions.
South Staffordshire Council employs two enforcement officers.
The county council's cabinet is looking into the possibility of managing the scheme alone.
Staffordshire county councillor Mike Lawrence, cabinet member for community, culture and localism, said: "While making things easier for pedestrians, particularly the elderly and disabled people, good traffic management also helps ease traffic flow and helps boost the local economy."
More than one in 10 of the cancelled tickets were dropped due to errors made by the council's civil enforcement officers.
Other reasons for cancellation included sign defects, which accounted for five per cent of the cancellations, and technology failures, which accounted for one per cent.
