£1.2m car parking fines written off

PARKING chiefs have been forced to write off nearly £1.2 million in fines racked up by foreign drivers, it emerged today.

New council figures have revealed that more than 34,000 penalty tickets have been dished out to foreign-registered cars in the last three years – but only around half have been paid.

Transport chiefs can trace British-registered cars through the DVLA if a driver does not pay, but there is no way of doing the same thing for vehicles registered overseas.

Raising overseas court actions against foreign motorists is too costly for the council, so the tickets are just written off.

While tourists are thought to account for the bulk of the tickets, anecdotal evidence from council officials suggests that some foreign nationals who move to Edinburgh on a permanent basis are deliberately not registering their cars to avoid paying the parking fines and other motoring taxes.

Transport chiefs and driving groups today said a Europe-wide agreement on driving offences was the only way to stop the parking cheats.

Neil Greig, a spokesman for the Institute of Advanced Motorists, said: "It is surprising that as many as half of these fines have been paid.

"Nothing is going to change on this problem until we have a European-wide agreement whereby fines and disqualifications apply to each country.

"A high-level European agreement is in place for this, but it has still to be ratified by each country so drivers are still getting away with it.

"The numbers for Edinburgh are high because it is clearly a big tourist attraction, but what is probably more worrying for us is those who are deliberately not registering their vehicles to avoid these fines or paying road tax.

"A pan-European agreement would mean nobody would get away with not paying these fines and I am hopeful we will see it happen within the next few years."

Parking fines in Edinburgh are £60, but are reduced to £30 if paid within a fortnight.

If unpaid within two months, the owner of the car loses the right to appeal and sheriff officers are called in to recover the debt.

Drivers get away with ignoring the rules as parking offences ceased being a criminal matter when police traffic wardens were replaced with attendants hired by the council in the late 1990s.

The number of tickets issued to foreign-registered cars in 2008 was an estimated 11,924, down from 13,398 in 2007. A total of 9283 tickets were issued in 2006.

Councillor Phil Wheeler, the city's transport leader, said: "This issue is not unique to Edinburgh but affects authorities across the UK as there are currently no cross-border warrants for parking tickets issued within Europe.

"I hope to see a solution to this that sees this loophole closed."