Significant Increase in PCNs Issued By Hounslow Council
Leader defends 'reasonable and justifiable' enforcement
The latest figures for Penalty Charge Notices (PCN) show that there has been a significant increase in the number being issued by Hounslow Council.
In the 2018 financial year ending in March there was a 37.1% rise in PCNs issued by the borough to 117,694.
Parking fines rose by 25.2% to 84,456 and bus lane PCNs more than doubled to 6,224 although these are still substantially below the peak seen in 2014 of 18,706. There has also been a big increase in the number of PCNs issued for alleged moving traffic violations such as stopping in a yellow junction box. These were up by 75.5% to 27,005.
Of Hounslow’s total parking fines, 62,704 were for Higher Level Parking PCNs, issued for more serious contraventions including parking on yellow lines, obstructing dropped kerbs and footway parking, with just 21,761 PCNs issued for lower level contraventions such as expired parking tickets.
The figures for Hounslow include 1,871 PCNs issued by the Late Evening Enforcement (LEE) team since starting work in February 2018. The LEE team was introduced following complaints received from residents regarding parking on pavements, corners, zig zags and resident’s bays. Since the start of the new financial year the team has issued around 13,000 PCNs.
Although the rise in PCNs in Hounslow is well above that for London as a whole which was up by around 10% the borough hasn’t seen the steady year on year increases that have occurred elsewhere and the number of fines issues puts Hounslow in the middle of the range for London. Neighbouring Ealing issued 195,058 fines a 21.1% increase on the previous year.
London Councils has published data on this year's parking and enforcement appeals across all enforcing authorities, including the 33 London Borough Councils and Transport for London (TfL). The figures show that London boroughs and TfL issued 5,616,402 penalty charge notices (PCNs) for parking and moving traffic contraventions in 2017/18.
There were 600 appeals against parking fines in Hounslow in the last financial year. 32% of valid appeals were upheld by the adjudicator and 17% were not contested by the Council. In Ealing there were 1,164 appeals of which 44% were upheld and 30% not contested by the Council. For London as a whole there were 38,087 appeals of which 49% were upheld and 26% were not contested.
Councillor Steve Curran, Leader of Hounslow Council said, “These figures show that enforcement across the borough has been reasoned and justifiable in its emphasis on more serious travel and parking contraventions.
“The introduction of evening enforcement has had a big impact which we hope will tail off as motorists realise that inconsiderate parking at any time of the day or evening will be penalised. The vast majority of our residents travel and park in a considerate manner and it’s our aim to encourage behaviour change amongst the tiny minority for whom the same cannot be said.”
Cllr Julian Bell, Chair of London Councils’ Transport and Environment Committee, said, "All PCN income goes towards paying for the provision of essential traffic and parking services, with any surplus funding invested in other important transport projects."
December 6, 2018