Bexley Council owed £2.6m in unpaid parking fines

Bexley Council has written off more than £650,000 of parking debt this financial year

A London council has revealed it is owed more than £2.6m in unpaid parking fines from the last two years.

Of that sum, Bexley Council wrote off more than £650,000 of parking debt in the current financial year, a council meeting heard last Thursday.

The overall debt rose due to an increased number of fines and a backlog of appeals, council officers reported.

"Decisions to write off debts are not taken lightly," a council spokesperson said.

• Parking fines 'not a deterrent' and could rise

In an audit committee meeting agenda report, council officers said an IT error had stopped cases progressing to enforcement agents for two months.

The difficulty in receiving payments led to the turnaround time of fine appeals becoming approximately 50 days, the report said.

Between April and July this year, the council issued 29,095 parking charges, with 15% of the fines remaining unpaid by the end of July, it said.

The report added that 76,465 parking fines were issued in the 2022/23 financial year.

A spokesperson for the council said it was continuing to pursue the debts owed.

"In circumstances where it is not possible to recover the debt - such as when the vehicle owner is untraceable - we unfortunately need to write those debts off," they said.

Additional reporting by Joe Coughlan, Local Democracy Reporting Service

Listen to the best of BBC Radio London on Sounds and follow BBC London on Facebook, X and Instagram. Send your story ideas to [e-mail]