Your car could be towed away by council and sold off at auction under new plan – if you make one of these easy mistakes

UP to 150 cars could be seized and sold by the council every year under a new plan.

From April next year, Slough Borough Council in Berkshire will tow away cars with three or more unpaid parking tickets.

2

They are also allowed to remove cars that are causing an obstruction or pose a hazard.

The owners of the vehicles will be ordered to pay to recover their car, and if they fail to do so they will be sold at auction.

Paul Kelly, the council’s lead member for housing, highways, planning and transport believes the new scheme will raise £165,000 every year.

Around £150,000 of that will go towards running the scheme which was inspired by policies in London and the South East.

Pat Hayes, the council’s senior officer in charge of roads said: “You’ll have heard about difficulties getting refuse vehicles and fire engines to places in the borough,” he said.

“It’s good news in terms of keeping traffic moving, it’s good news in terms of safety and it’s good news in terms of parking fine recovery.”

Those using fake blue disabled parking badges could also be stung by the new rule.

Caravans, trailers and abandoned vehicles could also be towed.

This comes as drivers paid a record £620million in council parking fines last year.

And more than 1,000 tickets are dished out every hour.

With an average penalty fee of £60, the stats indicate more than ten million tickets were issued.

The 2023/24 total is a six per cent rise on the previous year.

Lambeth Council in South London had the highest revenue with £52.4million.

Brighton & Hove had the highest for a non-London council with £12.2million.

But the true total will be much higher as 42 of the 377 local authorities submitted their numbers too late to be included in the official analysis.

Cash raised from the fines goes towards running parking services.

Manchester, Leeds, Liverpool and Portsmouth were all in the top ten of councils outside of the capital for the amount brought in from parking ticket fines.

LONDON COUNCILS

Cllr Adam Hug, transport spokesperson for the Local Government Association, said: “Motorists can avoid fines by ensuring they observe parking and traffic rules that are only there to help all drivers get around and find parking safely, smoothly and fairly.

“Money raised from fines and on-street charges is used for running parking services, with any surplus spent on essential transport improvements, including fixing the £16.3 billion road repairs backlog, reducing congestion, tackling poor air quality and supporting local bus services.

“Beyond this, any surplus also contributes towards vital services such as cleaning our streets and improving them so they are fit for the future.

“If any motorist believes they have been fined unfairly, then they have the right to appeal against it.”

2