Northumberland car parks with most parking fines issued revealed

The location with the most fines was in Berwick and the top eight locations are all in north Northumberland.

A Freedom of Information request by the Local Democracy Reporting Service found that there were 4,240 PCNs issued by the council between November 1, 2021, and October 31, 2022.

This was up on the same period in the previous two years – there were 2,297 handed out between 2019 and 2020 and 2,660 between 2020 and 2021. However, these figures will have been skewed by coronavirus restrictions.

For the most recent year, the majority were handed out in the county’s coastal car parks, with 2,504 PCNs relating to them. A total of 1,340 were given in railway car parks, while 396 were issued at on-street car parking spaces.

In terms of individual car parks, the 10 with the most tickets issued were as follows:

Railway Station – Long Stay CP, Berwick (729) Links Road Car Park, Bamburgh (536) Chare Ends CP, Holy Island (449) Station Yard Overflow CP, Seahouses (376) Alnmouth Railway Station (Northbound) CP (318) Station Yard CP, Seahouses (300) Beadnell Car Park (256) Craster Quarry CP (250) Hill Street, Corbridge (181) Morpeth Railway Station (South) CP 151

The council charges £50 for not displaying a pay and display ticket, although this is reduced by 50 per cent if it is paid within 14 days. That means, with 4,240 tickets issued, the council could have brought in between £106,000 and £212,000.

Coun Guy Renner-Thompson represents the Bamburgh ward, which includes the popular seaside towns of Beadnell, Seahouses and Bamburgh itself. He said he had asked the council to send up wardens to his area due to issues with tourists parking where they shouldn’t.

Coun Renner-Thomspon said: “Parking in our coastal villages is always an issue, particularly in summer where you have competing interests between residents and businesses.

“Without our traffic wardens patrolling, it would be chaos. I asked the traffic wardens to come up, but I was asking them to patrol the residential streets as you had tourists parking there, but most of the PCNs have been issued in council car parks.”