SENIOR Conservatives are calling for action to be taken over 12,500 unpaid parking tickets issued in the past 3 years.
Deputy Leader of Thurrock Conservatives Cllr Rob Gledhill said “Following the last full Council I was concerned that the amount collected from parking fines were a lot less than what you would expect for the 10,000 issued last year. I was shocked to find that over the past three years, Labour run Thurrock Council has failed to collect over £900,000 of parking fines, nearly a quarter of all those issued.”
Figures supplied to Cllr Gledhill show that in three years that just over 40,000 parking fines had been issued, nearly 12,500 had not been paid and a further 6,000 had been cancelled. Money raised from parking fines must be used for transport improvements such as pothole repairs, parking improvement, bus subsidies or building new roads. Thurrock Council has recently invested £130,000 in a CCTV car designed to improve parking problems across the borough.
Cllr Gledhill added “This money could be used to fix over 16,000 potholes, increase bus subsidies in Thurrock or to help protect our grass verges whilst allowing residents to park off road. Issuing parking fines should not be used as a cash cow to top up the Councils coffers; they should be used to deter people from parking where they are not supposed to. However, when 1/3rd of tickets are not paid and no action is being taken to pursue defaulters how is that a deterrent?
“I would urge the Portfolio Holder to take urgent action on this before making the problem worse by issuing even more parking fines that will remain uncollected.”
Rob no mates Gledhill
This man is undoubtedly the busiest individual I have ever come across, and remember it’s not even his own money, I bet everybody wanted to be a friend at school and I bet everybody wants to be he’s friend now, somebody should check to see if he has any red marks on his back
Where people have prodding him with a 10 foot barge pole
Whose money is it then?
Well done Cllr Gledhill
Good job your keeping an eye on Kents Cowboys.
Thurrock Council’s by the look of it, chickenfeed this was supposed to be a light hearted joke, but nevertheless this man seems to do these things with so much gusto, and comes across every time like he really enjoys it, and he never loses an opportunity to make political points every time he opens his mouth, I think it’s common knowledge that he is after Mr Anderson job but I think he is far too obnoxious for that position
And remember most people probably accumulate parking tickets in and around Grays town centre where Mr Gledhill unlike you and I gets free parking on the daily basis, so for him to criticise ordinarily people for non-payment of parking fines is a bit rich wouldn’t you agree.
Anyway chickenfeed what do you think
Jolly Councillor Gledhill is never happier than when he is moaning about something.
Perhaps someone should take a look at the appalling figures regarding the issuing of parking tickets and collection of parking fines when the Conservatives last ran Thurrock Council. Some may want these figures buried otherwise the current criticism of Labour would look somewhat hypocritical.
Also why has Cllr Gledhill lumped three years together? Why can’t he publish the year on year figures to see if the collection rate has improved?
The biggest lie is claiming parking fines aren’t a cash cow for councils – this is the whole idea – to wring as much money from residents and visitors from charges and fines. No Council sends money on spy cars and traffic wardens unless they bring in a financial return. Any Councillor who claims otherwise is telling big porkies.
albert, sorry for delay I wasnt ignoring you just a little busy. I have to reply with “why is it an oppostion councillor that seems to be pointing this out”? surely it should be the very ineffective adminstration who are telling us all how they intend to collect this money and stop putting up our council tax. If it is actually true that councillors get free parking I for one would be extremely P*ssed off, but I wont comment on that until have some proof, cos it isnt in there allowance package as per the council website. I have to admit my hue would be blue rather than red so dont think I would mind either Gledhill or Anderson as council leaders, I would definateley like to see Comrade Kent removed unless he can get his cabinet to start doing what they are paid to do and lead the council not just bow down to officers, the chief exec in particular.
ed, i dont think anyone is denying parking fines are cash cows but surely if we accept there are parking restrictions then we should adhere to them, or pay the fine, cos after all if the fines were paid maybe just maybe Comrade Kent and his merry band would stop raising council tax, and as far as whether or not the collection has improved, or labour have collected more than the tories, is irrelavent as there are quite clearly outstanding fines and Gledhill is simply highlighting the period which Kent has been in power, which is exactly what I would presume he would do if the boot were on the other foot.
chickenfeed1 – for some reason Happy Gledhill has lumped 3 years together so we are unable to see if collection is getting better or worse compared to previous years.
There is also no comparison with other local authorities to see if collection problems are a Thurrock problem or a nationwide problem faced by all local authorities.
In 2005/06 parking enforcement under the Conservatives made a loss of £206,205.62
In 2006/07 there was a further loss of over £32789.56
In 2007/08 there was a profit of £34893.81
In 2008/09 there was a profit of £18,519.70
In 2009/10 there was a profit of £68,102.39
In 2010/11 there was a profit of £158,281.16
In 2011/12 there was a profit of £63,029.80
I don’t have the figures for 2012/13.
The Conservatives took control of the Council in 2004 and Labour took control of the Council in 2010.
Hmm so £900,000 in unpaid fines and at the last update I saw a further £3m in unpaid Council Tax so that is £4m owed to TBC, I dont give a stuff if it is the Tories or the Labs that are to blame, this is a hell of a lot of money that could be put to good use in the area, it is about time that TBC did something about the debts.
Lambo it would be interesting to see the Council Tax arrears and collection figures since 2004 to see if the collection has got better or worse – I’m sure I have the figures somewhere 🙂
Lambo – found some figures for you. When the Conservatives left office there was £3.4 million in uncollected Council Tax arrears. Last year there were £1.9 million. At the end of 2008 there was a massive £5.2 million outstanding!
Year Amount collected in year Prev arrears collected Outstanding
2002/3 £34331000 96.1% £ 677000 £2,896,000
2003/4 £41428000 96.3% £953000 £3,033,000
2004/5 343845000 96.3 % £944000 £3,850,000
2005/6 £45645000 95.5% £1869000 £3,771,000
2006/7 £48356000 96.1% £1370000 £4,358,000
2007/8 £50737000 96.0% £1356000 £5,193,000
2009/10 £1325178 £3,418,952
2011/12 £720000 £1,917,314.11
Some of the figures are incomplete and missing but I am sure a FOI will fill in the gaps.
Conservative Councillors should be very careful lecturing Labour on Council Tax arrears when there own record was nothing to be proud of. It would appear that the current Labour administration are collecting more money and collecting more old debts.
I would appear that the gaps got removed from my reply!
For clarity in 2009/10 £1,325,178 million of council tax for the year remained uncollected and the accumulated arrears uncollected was £3,418,952 million.
In 2011/12 £720,000 of council tax remained uncollected and the accumulated amount of arrears uncollected was £1,917,314.11.