A staggering £1m was collected in parking fines in just one year, The Bolton News can exclusively reveal.
Between December 2021 and December 2022, the total mount of money pocketed by the local authority was £1,105,418.28.
That sum was generated from more than 26,000 tickets issued at almost 900 locations throughout the borough during that time.
The Bolton News put in a Freedom of Information Request about parking in the town.
Town Hall chiefs say that all the money from the fines collected are “reinvested into the provision of the parking services team and the wider highways department” which includes “assisting with maintenance costs of the highways and their associated assets” in the borough.
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This includes roads, pavements, drains, bridges, and road signs.
Some streets in Bolton 'earned' considerably more that others for the council last year.
Le Mans Crescent was the Council’s highest earner having brought in £57,846.15, while Silverwell Street cost ticketed motorists a total of £46,401.26.
Derby Street brought in £35,644.03, rounding off the top three which made almost £140,000 between them from 3,672 tickets – 1,657, 1,174, and 841 respectively.
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Once the top 100 earning streets are mapped out, it is easy to see where in the borough’s motorists are getting caught the most.
The vast majority of streets bringing in the most amount of money from parking tickets are situated in the town centre, as well as the Deane and Daubhill areas.
The council says this is simply due to the town centre being busiest location within Bolton, with the highest number of visitors and vehicles parking “resulting in the area where the majority of PCN’s are issued”.
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A council spokesperson added: “That is where we deploy most of our resources to ensure that our network is free from obstructions caused by vehicles contravening parking restrictions.
“The council does have sufficient parking available in the town centre, with 356 pay and display bays on street parking, 48 disabled bays, and 2349 available parking bays on the council car parks in the town centre.
“In addition, there is several private car parks and we can see from our statistics that we have capacity daily within our assets for more cars to park.
“The issue is vehicles deliberately contravening the parking restrictions.
Westhoughton, Horwich, and Farnworth also all had a notable number of high-earning streets, with Tonge, Halliwell, Astley Bridge, Doffcocker and Great Lever all making an appearance on the top 100 list.
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Between 2012 and 2021 there was a scheme which allowed free parking for two hours in the town centre’s multi-storeys and on-street bays.
The scrapped scheme also included free weekend and bank holiday parking at NCP multi-story car parks, including the Octagon, and came to an end on July 19, 2021.
Responding to whether it believed whether adding more parking options would help reduce the number of parking fines motorists receive, the spokesperson said: “The town centre has plenty of parking provision.
“The council has a good parking offer with a mixture of short stay, long stay, and car park options available, in and surrounding the town centre.
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“Presently the council has no plans to increase the parking offer as we have capacity within our existing assets.”
They added: “The council aims to have a fair, reasonable, and consistent approach to parking enforcement.
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“Civil Parking Enforcement assists with helping move people around Bolton in a safe and efficient manner by enforcing against vehicles that are parked in places that could obstruct the flow of vehicles.
“It also contributes to the Bolton economy by attempting to maximise the available parking spaced in the town centre by enforcing against vehicles that park inconsiderably and ensuring blue badge holders have access to assigned disabled bays.”
If you have a story or something you would like to highlight in the community, please email me at lewis.finney@newsquest.co.uk or DM me on Twitter @lewisfinney18.
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