Driving offences down in London

London Councils has revealed that parking penalties in the capital were down by 11% last year.

Figures released by the organisation show a total of 4.68M penalty charge notices (PCNs) were issued for parking offences between April 1 2008 and March 31 2009

A two-tier parking penalty system was launched throughout the capital in July 2007 to represent the seriousness of offences. The new figures show that three-quarters of the PCNs issued were for contraventions in the ‘higher seriousness band’.

In total, 5.466M PCNs were issued across the capital for a range of motoring offences. The number of penalties issued for illegally driving in bus lanes was down by 20% from last year to 233,927. This figure has halved over the course fo the past two years.

The number of PCNs issued for moving traffic contraventions stood at 540,000.

Cllr Mike Fisher, chairman of London Council’s transport and environment committee, said the figures showed the two-tier parking system was successfully targetting motorists that caused the most disruption on the capital’s streets.

‘It appears that people are beginning to heed the warnings that if they break the rules they will get a ticket. At the same time, councils are successfully making more efforts to focus their activities on parking contraventions that matter most while spending less time penalising minor cases such as overstaying on a meter for a few minutes.

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