COUNCIL officials have remade their case for higher parking fines to the new Labour government. 

For some time, BCP Council and its former MPs have been lobbying the former Tory governments to raise the fine from £25 for minor offences, if paid within 14 days. 

BCP Council’s chief executive Graham Farrant said: “We have been campaigning with the government for some time and we’ve reopened this with the new government. 

“Car parking fines are at the level very similar to that we charge for a full day in the car parks. The level two car parking fine is £50 or £25 if paid within 14 days and the top level is £35/£70.  

“There is a national view looking at the level of fines for parking illegally. We are looking at London as an example to see whether that has a deterrent effect.  

“We are getting more and more complaints about illegal car parking, one weekend we issued well over 1,000 parking tickets and that's not good for anybody as it means cars are parking illegally.” 

Prior to this year’s air festival, BCP Council advertised premium parking spaces in some of its seafront parking ranging from £40 to £60 - which some criticised as being higher than the cost of a penalty charge notice.