Wokingham Council parking fines bring in £390,000

Wokingham Borough Council (WBC) forked out £360,000 on employing eight officers to patrol the borough in this time.

Fines are issued to motorists who park on single or double yellow lines, park in areas with loading restrictions, in a residents’ parking zone or overstay their time limit.

Councillor Pauline Jorgensen, WBC’s lead member for highways and transport, said: “Thames Valley Police still has sole enforcement responsibility for matters of obstruction, anti-social driving and for moving traffic offences across Wokingham Borough.

“Our objective with CPE is to assist police where we can to deal with dangerous parking, ensure disabled bays are not misused, and keep the traffic moving.”

Central Wokingham was the top area for parking fines, with almost 8,000 issued from May 2018 to April 2019.

Hurst was the next busiest zone for the authority’s enforcement officers as 1,857 fines were distributed, and Woodley visitors were the third-most reprimanded, raking in 1,741 tickets.

Parking enforcement has been a hot topic of discussion at various committee meetings for councillors, with some questioning fines given at Dinton Pastures Country Park.

Liberal Democrats councillor Clive Jones has been one of those, and he told the News: “I don’t think that that sort of targeting is right.

“It is targeting people that are enjoying their leisure, people that are walking by the lakes and watching their kids play in the playgrounds.”

Cllr Jones also called on the council to employ more full-time parking enforcement officers.

He added: “I would still like to see a dedicated officer for Earley and we still have problems around primary schools in particular across the borough.

“I know the council is looking and it certainly needs to be addressed.”

The zone with the fewest parking tickets issued were Ruscombe (0), Sonning (1), and Charvil (1).