Dundee collects £400,000 in parking fines

Evening Telegraph and Post

27 April 06

Fixed penalty notices slapped on the windscreens of motorists in Dundee earned the local authority £400,000 in a single year, figures released by the Scottish Executive revealed today.
The council issued 21,570 tickets in 2004/05. Some were written off, but thousands are still outstanding.
In comparison, Perth & Kinross issued 12,818 tickets, but also collected £400,000 from fines, so as with council tax, the city’s neighbour proved more adept at collecting money it is due.
The figures show Dundee and Perth and Kinross councils are minor players compared to Edinburgh and Glasgow, where £12.6 million worth of parking tickets were issued the same year.
A total of 513,700 fixed penalty notices for parking infringements were issued in 2004/05, which, together with revenue from vehicle removals, raised £14.4 million from motorists.
The statistics, which cover the councils that operate civil penalty schemes, are contained in the Executive’s annual report on criminal proceedings in Scottish courts.
The report shows convictions rose by 1% to 134,500 compared with the previous year. Increases in convictions for crimes such as shoplifting, handling an offensive weapon, vandalism, drugs and speeding were only partly offset by decreases for non-sexual crimes of violence, housebreaking and motor vehicle theft.
A 186% rise in speeding offences over the last ten years gives a clear indication of the ever-increasing use of speed cameras across the country and the willingness of police to leave speed limit enforcement to them.
In 1995, there were 67,343 speeding offences of which 15,049 were detected “automatically”. The year 2004/05 saw a total of 193,240 speeding offences with 160,132 as a result of automatic detection. Cameras and other such devices now detect 83% of speeding motorists as opposed to 10% a decade ago.
Other main findings of the report include:
l Of persons proceeded against in court in 2004/05, 89% were convicted;
l The number of custodial sentences imposed in 2004/05 was 16,500. More than 80% of these were for six months or less;
l In 2004-05, the number of convictions resulting in a community sentence was 17,000. These were mainly probation orders — 9400, and community service orders — 5400. The average length of community service orders imposed in 2004-05 was 148 hours. Other community sentences in 2004-05 included restriction of liberty orders — for more than 1300 convictions — and drug treatment and testing orders — just under 800 convictions
l In 2004-05, 63% of all convictions resulted in a fine or compensation order as the main penalty, compared with 71% in 1995-96. Excluding company fines, the average fine in 2004-05 was £218; the average value of compensation order imposed was £287.
l Peak age for convictions in 2004/05 was 18: 7% of all males and 1% of all females of this age were convicted at least once in 2004/05 for a crime or offences such as common assault or breach of the peace
l The average fine imposed for motor vehicle offences with a charge proved in 2004-05 was £182. The average length of driving ban imposed was 20 months
l Almost 11,000 conditional offers were made in respect of the new offence introduced in December 2003 of driving while using a mobile telephone