THE COUNCIL has failed to explain why thousands of parking fines issued this summer have been cancelled.

The Daily Echo can reveal that 14 per cent of the penalty charge notices issued by BCP Council’s enforcement teams between the start of April and end of August have been scrapped.

As reported, the local authority dished out a staggering 43,771 parking tickets for various rule breaking this summer.

There was a 40 per cent year-on-year increase in tickets issued.

However, it has now been discovered that 6,271 penalty charge notices were cancelled by council officers.

As of October 13, a further 7,385 of the fines had had still not been paid.

Assuming the maximum £70 penalty could be levied for the cancelled and unpaid fines, the council has missed out on more than £950,000.

When asked why so many penalties had been cancelled, a BCP Council spokesperson said: “Each case is assessed on individual circumstances in line with the Traffic Management Act 2004.

“Unpaid penalty charge notices that are not being challenged or where the challenge has been unsuccessful are pursued through debt recovery.”

The council spokesperson referred the Daily Echo to the online copy of the legislation “for information”.

The Freedom of Information Act request said that more than half – 23,301 fines – were paid within 14 days at the 50 per cent discount price.

A further 3,245 were paid at full price before a notice to owner was sent and 3,548 were paid after this notice was sent.

The council said seven penalty charge notices were “unrecoverable” and 14 were accepted at the discounted amount after the normal 14-day period.

The day which saw the most tickets issued was July 17 with 935 vehicles given charge notices, a council cabinet report said.

Officers have said poor parking was seen during peak demand periods over the summer.

A temporary traffic restrition order (TTRO) was put in place to prevent illegal parking causing road blockages and to allow for the safe movement of vehicles following issues in the East Cliff area of Bournemouth.

Additional preventative measures were actioned, such as placing cones in "high-risk areas", targeted deployment of enforcement officers and having tow vehicles in problem locations.