Attendants ticket two cars every minute in a single day

PARKING attendants handed out almost £50,000 worth of tickets in a single day after targeting bank holiday motorists – the equivalent of more than two a minute for the hours they worked.

A total of 1615 penalty notices were issued in Edinburgh on January 2, compared to 416 the following day and just 89 on January 4.

Assuming all the £30 charges were paid, the tickets would have handed the city council £48,450 for just one day's work.

The figures were today branded "inexcusable" by one motoring organisation, but the council said it had done everything it could to advertise the restrictions.

Council bosses had allowed drivers to park free of charge on selected streets over the festive period as a sign of seasonal goodwill, but charges were in place on January 2.

The council said the day was treated the same as any other, with an average number of attendants patrolling the streets from 8.30am to 6.30pm.

In 2008 a total of 1566 tickets were given to drivers on January 2, and 1781 were handed out on the same date in 2007.

One motorist, who did not want to be named, received two tickets in the space of two hours in Ashley Terrace on January 2.

The 35-year-old said he felt motorists had been caught out because of the relaxation of the restrictions in some parts of the city over Christmas.

He said: "I think the way they have acted is quite cavalier. They basically lulled motorists into a false sense of security by relaxing the restrictions one day and then stung us the next."

Bruce Young, of the Association of British Drivers, said: "I thought January 2 was a public holiday, but it obviously isn't for parking attendants.

"I'm surprised they were working at all that day – it's inexcusable. This is symptomatic of Edinburgh City Council's approach to parking revenue, that they would seek to benefit from the sales and people coming into the city to shop. They obviously saw it as an opportunity."

A council spokesman said: "There are four public holidays each year that are not enforceable – Christmas Day, Boxing Day, New Year's Day and Easter Monday. This has been the case for the past 11 years.

"The council makes every effort to communicate this information to drivers via printed parking literature, its website, through the local media and on the ticket machines themselves."

Edinburgh's parking rules and regulations last year netted the city council a record-breaking £20 million from motorists.

The income from fines, pay-and-display tickets, and residential parking permits soared by more than £3m in the last financial year

Critics have accused the council of using drivers as an "easy target" to help tackle its financial woes.