Bankrupt Thurrock council doubles its parking fines take

Robert Groves, a community organiser who lives in Stanford-le-Hope, said he was not surprised at the increase in fines issued

A council declared effectively bankrupt has nearly doubled its takings from parking fines in the past five years, it has emerged.

Thurrock Council was left with debts of about £1.5bn following a series of failed investments in solar farms.

Figures obtained by the BBC showed the amount raised in parking fines rose from £466,249 to £872,949 in the past five years.

The council said any surplus from the income was spent on highways.

The figures, supplied under the Freedom of Information Act, revealed 18,723 fines were issued in 2018-19. Last year, the council handed out 29,344 penalties.

The council has also doubled the size of its parking enforcement team from 10 staff members in 2021, to 20 currently.

Robert Groves, a community organiser who lives in Stanford-le-Hope, said he was not surprised at the rise in fines being issued.

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He said the increase in the number of permit-only zones (from nine, five years ago, to 14) had made it increasingly difficult for people to visit other parts of the borough.

"I would be interested in how many of these fines were issued to out-of-towners and how many was just to the local population popping to places like the shops. I suspect it is the latter."

The council said any surplus monies left over from parking enforcement or its car parks was ringfenced for highways and transportation improvements

Ben Maney, the council's cabinet member for highways, said: "Our main aim is to ensure that roads are safe and that the borough's traffic can keep moving.

"We have focussed parking enforcement activity on known hot-spots to make sure that nuisance parkers do not block roads."

He said the extra staff had "allowed additional patrols to take place which mean we are able to move on vehicles that are blocking our roads and issue fines to those whose selfish parking creates safety and access issues for others".

"This has also led to an increase in the number of people who park illegally receiving penalty charge notices," he added.

"The internal enforcement service is entirely self-funding and any surplus is ringfenced for highways and parking improvements."