Birmingham’s Alum Rock shamed as Bad Parking Hotspot

Birmingham’s Alum Rock Road has been named as one of England’s worst parking ticket hotspots.

While it has been a parking blackspot for years, it was named the second most ticketed road in England outside London.

Traffic wardens have given out penalty notices for bad parking on the street, which is lined with hundreds of South Asian shops and businesses.

In total, Birmingham City Council issued 112,735 tickets from August 2019 to July 2020, generating £3,951,065 in revenue.

Newham in London was the UK’s biggest earner, generating £10.6 million. Haringey was second at £9.8 million, followed by Ealing with £8.3 million.

The biggest parking revenue outside London was in Wellington Street, Glasgow at £5.4 million, with Alum Rock Road next.

Birmingham City Council said: “Alum Rock Road is a busy road with clear parking restrictions in place.

“Regular enforcement takes place on this road to encourage motorists to comply with parking restrictions and to try and change parking behaviour at this location.

“If anyone feels they have been issued with a parking ticket unfairly then they are, of course, entitled to appeal against it.”

A representative from the Alum Rock Community Forum said:

“We need more provision for car parking. It’s a busy high street. There has been no real investment for access and people with special needs to park.

“It’s more of a family experience. People do not go for a couple of minutes but for a couple of hours because there’s an array of shops.

“It’s a proper retail experience.

“I would advise people to check the signs when they are parking. It’s also worth parking away and walking five or ten minutes.”

The data was obtained under freedom of information laws by Compare The Market and it was based on the responses of 204 councils.

Compare The Market’s Dan Hutson said: “Parking fine revenues are a cash cow for many local authorities.

“Up and down the country drivers are regularly being caught out by tight parking restrictions.”

“With the third lockdown now in place, we would encourage drivers to take extra care and attention when parking up their car to ensure they avoid a fine.”

David Renard, of the Local Government Association, said:

“Councils have to try to ensure there are spaces available for everyone at all times of the day and we can keep traffic moving, and dangerous obstructions are dealt with.

“With an increase of ten million cars on the road in the last 20 years, this has become increasingly challenging for councils.

“Income raised through on-street parking charges and parking fines is spent on running parking services.

“Any surplus is spent on essential transport projects, including fixing potholes and tackling congestion, but it would take more than a decade and £10 billion to tackle our current roads repair backlog.”