5,000 motorists slapped with parking tickets after change to Manchester city centre parking rules.

The sheer number of motorists hit by penalty charge notices has increased by more than 100% ever since contentious weekend and evenuing parking charges were set up in the centre of  Manchester.

Comment:  This is likely to happen in Westminster if the prposed changes to parking go thorough - for full story see below.

In excess of 5,000 parking tickets have already been handed out within the initial two weeks of longer parking hours, during which car owners in parking bays have to pay right until 8pm in the evening as well as on Sundays.

It's furthermore surfaced that the council has created a new shift (12pm to 8pm) for civil enforcement officers for them to patrol during the later hours.

In excess of 400 motorists have been penalised on the first Sunday that enforcement commenced.

Since then 5,200  penalty charges have been given during the initial 14 days  that the new parking charges commenced. Exactly 4,198 parking tickets were issued to cars which were parked in payment bays , slightly in excess of 1,000 on cars parked on single or double-yellow lines (note: double yellow lines operate 24/7). These figures compare with 1,926 penalty charges issued to individuals who parked their cars in payment bays during the same 14 day period a year ago - 495 parking tickets were issued to cars on yellow lines.


It is understood that the council launched the changes as part of strategies to assist a £170 million budget deficit, which the council has incurred.

In addition to the 12-hour, seven-day-a-week charging, the price of on-street parking has additionally been increased to £2.70 per hour.

Car owners have reported that the latest policies are improperly signed. One civil enforcement officer - who operates from the local authority's sub contractors NSL said that the new restrictions had not been advertised sufficiently.(