Tower Hamlets has appeared in the top 10 of a London-wide count of parking and traffic fine appeals.
In total 1,403 appeals were made with 584 upheld, a success rate of 42 per cent for aggrieved drivers, according to the annual count carried out by London Councils. The year before saw 48pc of appeals upheld.
The borough issued 119,111 penalty charge notices (PCN) in 2017-18 – placing it in 21st place out of 33 London councils behind top spot Westminster on 323,687 but four times greater than lowest placed Sutton on 29,445.
A total of 116,985 PCNs were issued in Tower Hamlets the year before, the figures show.
A Tower Hamlets Council spokeswoman said: “There is no one reason for the slight increase in PCNs but a combination of drivers parking irresponsibly and new, smarter ways of deploying council resources is likely responsible.”
The council changed parking warden shift times to increase its coverage of the borough’s streets. It has put staff on bikes and set up cameras working 24-hours to catch traffic violations.
On appeals, the spokesman said: “Where a driver receives a PCN, it is right there is a transparent appeals process in place. “Decisions are taken by a parking adjudicator as part of a process set out in law.
“Much of the income generated goes towards delivering highway improvements.”
He added that the average percentage of appeals upheld in London in 2017-18 was 44 per cent.
Chris Smith, who won an appeal after his car was towed from a bay in Bethnal Green Road, said the council should give more notice when suspending residents’ parking.
“The signposting is not strong enough to inform people properly,” he said before adding that one issue was people removing tickets from cars as a joke leaving drivers unaware.
The capital’s local authorities and TfL issued 5,616,402 charges in 2017-18 an almost 10pc increase.
London Councils decides what to charge.
Julian Bell, its transport committee chairman, said: “The majority of road users abide by the rules.
“Boroughs and TfL only issue PCNs when they believe they have hard evidence a breach of parking or moving traffic rules has occurred.”
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