A street in south Manchester has been named as the worst outside London for parking fines, according to research.
More than 5,200 penalty charge notices (PCNs) were handed out to drivers on the A6 Stockport Road in the 2020/21 financial year, data from insurance comparison site Confused.com shows. Manchester council brought in more than £193,000 from fines on the busy route, which runs from Ardwick to Levenshulme.
PCNs are given out to drivers for a range of reasons, including parking offences, straying into bus lanes or stopping in a yellow box junction.
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Streets in London dominate the overall list of the most ticketed streets in the UK. Browning Road in Newham came out on top, with the council issuing a total of 67,557 tickets worth a whopping £3.3 million worth in fines.
After Stockport Road, the next most lucrative street outside the capital was Copy Nook in Blackburn followed by the A62 Oldham Road, in Oldham, which collected more than £86,000 from 3,180 PCNs. Oldham council said the "vast majority" of tickets were given to drivers who entered bus lanes when they should not have.
Other big earners were found in Derby, Stoke, Southend, Bristol and Slough. Local authorities were asked to provide details of their most ticketed street and the amount dished out in fines from it during the 2020-21 financial year in a series of Freedom of Information (FOI) requests.
The data reveals £19.5 million was collected by councils for offences committed on the top 103 streets over the 12 month period.
Further research conducted by Confused.com showed more than a third (34pc) of drivers believe that councils make too much money from penalising drivers through PCNs. For the one in two (50pc) drivers who said that they had received a PCN, the average amount paid in penalties was £72.
But drivers aren’t always opposed to paying for PCNs they’ve been issued. Over half of drivers (53pc) said they believe anything between £11-£40 is a reasonable price to pay as a consequence.
When it comes to the top reasons drivers have been penalised, more one in three (34pc) cited a parking offence as the reason. This is followed by driving in a bus lane (14pc) and stopping in a box junction (8pc).
As living costs continue to rise, drivers receiving PCNs will undoubtedly feel the pinch of the additional motoring costs. Over two in five (42pc) believe that parking fines are too expensive and more than one in three (34pc) feel that parking costs, more generally, should be reduced amid the rising costs of living.
And it could be that part of the problem is the lack of parking spaces. Over two in five (42pc) said that there isn’t enough parking in their local city centre. This has meant that two in five (41pc) of those who have received a parking fine received their ticket in a city centre.
And almost one in three (31pc) drivers also said that there aren’t enough parking spaces available on their local high street.
A spokesperson for Manchester City Council said: "As Stockport Road is one of the major arterial routes into Manchester is it vitally important that traffic along it can move freely and safely. Parking enforcement is carried out regularly so that any illegally parked vehicles can be issued with a Penalty Charge Notice."
A spokesperson for Oldham council said: “The A62 is one of the busiest roads in the borough and contains a number of bus lanes which help public transport services to run efficiently, particularly at peak times.
"The vast majority of these enforcement tickets were given to drivers who entered bus lanes when they shouldn't have. Councils across the country operate similar schemes and the money from fines issued is used to fund the highways improvements.
“Vehicle owners have the right to appeal fines and can do so by following the instructions on the back of the penalty charge notice, whereby the evidence will be reviewed.”
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