Over a quarter of all parking fines issued by Dundee City Council were unpaid last year, meaning they could be owed as much as £750,000.
The Council’s Parking Annual Report 2016 states that 8,402 parking charge notices were unpaid out of a total of 31,236, falling into 26 classifications of contravention.
The notices can be paid at the reduced rate of £30 if they are paid within 14 days, but after this period, the cost rises to £60, and then to £90 if still unpaid after 28 days.
This means the council could be owed up to £756,180 if all fines outstanding are dated longer than 28 days.
Councillor Fraser Macpherson said that — like other debts owed to the council — parking fines should be paid on time.
“I think it is absolutely vital that all debts owed to the council are collected,” he said.
“The vast majority of people pay what they are due to the council, such as council tax, and I think it should be reasonably expected that these are paid too.”
Councillor McPherson added that in many cases, the outstanding tickets were likely because of drawn-out situations such as identifying the owner of a vehicle or chasing payment via the courts.
The most common parking fine was due to the driver having no pay and display ticket or a failure to display one, making up 30% of the total.
Falling foul of restricted street parking rules, such as those with prescribed hours, was the second most common type of breach, with 22% of all notices falling into this category.
There were over 1000 breaches of disabled parking restrictions, contributing 4% of all parking misdemeanours.
The report also states that 2861, or 9% of fines, were classified as ‘bad’, meaning they had to be waived, cancelled, or written off.
Of these, 63% were waived, meaning valid parking information was not supplied at the time of issue, 20% were written off because the Council was unable to collect payment, and 17% were cancelled due to parking attendant error.
A Dundee City Council spokesperson said: “The council pursues all legal means open to it to recover money due from unpaid fines.
“The vast majority of unpaid fines from 2016 are being actively pursued.
“Parking restrictions are in place to help ensure safety for pedestrians and motorists.”
The Courier revealed last week that the number of parking fines issued by Dundee City Council has risen 70% in the last four years.
