Local councils dished out 250,000 more parking tickets in 2011 despite cutting the number of traffic wardens by 5%, a freedom of information request has revealed.

As per the information covering 71 city councils, a total of 6.8 million parking tickets were issued in 2011at the rate of one ticket every 4.6 seconds.Number of traffic wardens or CEOs (Civil Enforcement Officers) dipped from 3,882 in 2012 to 3,693 in 2011, however it did nothing to stop the number of penalties they handed out rising by 246,255.

131,378 fines handed out every week in last year, generated at least £234 million for local councils, potentially as much as £19 million each month. In 2011, outside London largest amount of parking fines were handed out in Liverpool City Council (146,503).

Manchester City Council and Birmingham City Council came at second and third place in terms of dishing out parking fines, with 138,558 and 132,684 fines, respectively.

According to insurance company Swiftcover.com, shortage of town-centre parking and increased use of CCTV technology to spot illegally parked cars is to be blamed for the increased fines and clamping.

“Although it might be an easy option to park on a double yellow for a short time, it’s potentially dangerous as well as being illegal, and can result in a fine,” said Robin Reames, chief claims officer at Swiftcover.com.

By dishing out 2,616 parking fines each on average in 2011, CEOs in Liverpool became the busiest and most efficient traffic wardens. CEO in Coventry handed out 2,220 fines and Worcester dished out 2,125, which compared to just 296 fines per CEO in 2011 in Sunderland.

Higher numbers of fines also resulted in an increase in disputes by motorists. In 2011, 1,758,571 parking ticket disputes were lodged with local councils and Transport for London. However, the success rate of these challenges has fallen from 47% in 2010 to 39% in 2011.

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