TRAFFIC wardens have issued 796 parking tickets in their first month of patrolling the streets of Wilmslow, which could potentially lead to a pay day of £668,640 per year for the town hall.
Macclesfield Borough Council have refused to release a breakdown of the fines, they can either be £50 or £70, but in the first month alone Wilmslow drivers clocked up 440 tickets, Handforth, 120, and Alderley Edge 236.
And if that’s not bad enough, Alderley and Wilmslow are getting worse.
Wilmslow started at 71 tickets in the first week (May 24) rising to 102, then up to 127 and now standing at 140 a week. Alderley shows a similar pattern with 48 in the first week, plateauing at 58, then 57 in weeks two and three and then rising to 73.
If each fine was for the maximum £70, and was not paid within 14 days which gives a 50 per cent discount, then the total amount made in revenue for MBC would be £55,720 for the month.
On the other hand, if all the tickets issued were for £50 and every motorist paid within 14 days making the fine £25 the town hall would have still made £19,900 which over the course of the year would bring in a staggering £238,800, almost enough to pay the wages bill for the 20 wardens.
Parking enforcement manager James Howard thinks that the high amount to start with will go down as people get used to the new arrangements.
He said: "The number of tickets issued so far is in line with expectations. I would expect them to go down somewhat as people realise that they risk a ticket if they park in the wrong place."
He added that a "significant percentage" of fines would be cancelled and nationally, nearly two thirds of tickets tend to result in payment – most at the discounted rate – while numbers tended to fall after the initial shock period.
