Every two seconds, a driver in the UK is set to receive a parking ticket, with 50,000 being issued every day.
Local councils are issuing roughly 20,000 fines a day due to the army of parking wardens that patrol the streets.
The other 30,000 tickets being issued daily are believed to come from private companies. Due to this combination, if the current rate continues, they are set to give £1.3 billion in fines this year.
With the cost of living crisis in full force and councils plotting a double-digit rise in parking charges, many drivers are concerned that they are being used to help provide extra income to councils and private firms.
Several Councils have stated that they will be increasing their parking charges by roughly 10% from April, including the London Borough of Waltham, Rutland, Southend, Thanet and York.
Churchill Motor Insurance discovered that councils increased the number of fines issued by 12% from 2021 to 2022, issuing 19,631 fines daily.
It is believed this helped provide the council an extra £35,113 a day, equating to £777,287 a year.
These figures have come from 230 councils that responded to a Freedom of Information request out of the 300 local authorities in the UK contacted.
Drivers in London were issued with more fines than others. Islington Council in North London was the highest, with a daily average of 1,102, closely followed by Lambeth (999) and Waltham Forrest (874.). Outside of London, Birmingham City Council had the highest rate (373), followed by Southampton City Council (313) and Cardiff Council (279).
Several motorists are punished for incorrectly keying their number plates into machines or overstaying by a few minutes.
Fines issued by councils can be up to £130 in London or £70 outside of the capital. On the other hand, private firms gave 2.7 million tickets to drivers between April and June last year, up 50% from 2021.
Edmund King, president of the AA, said: ‘Upping the charges and fining every single small mistake is a ruthless way to prop up council coffers.’
The Local Government Association said income from fines is spent on parking services, with any surplus ‘spent on essential transport projects’.