Few parking fines in residents' zone

But Devon charges householders half a million to park near home

The money Devon County Council makes from residents’ parking schemes has doubled in just three years - but very little of it is from fining people for using residents-only spaces. 

Last year, households stumped up more than half a million pounds for permits to be able to park near their homes. It was only a quarter of a million in the financial year ending April 2015.

The scheme is meant to make parking easier in areas where demand outstrips supply, particularly in central areas where terraced housing was built before cars dominated. And new developments are often designed with relatively few spaces, as local authorities try to nudge people into using other methods of transport. Cranbrook in East Devon, for example, was deliberately developed with few car parking spaces for visitors.

And controversially, residents’ parking permits don’t guarantee a space - only the right to one if available - but they do seem to work. Relatively few drivers are fined for parking in them illegally in Devon; on average just two or three tickets a day are issued across the whole county.

Currently 16,532 households have parking permits in the county, with schemes in parts of Appledore, Barnstaple, Bideford, Budleigh Salterton, Burlescombe, Chagford, Dartmouth, Exeter, Exmouth, Fremington, Ivybridge, Kingsbridge, Kingswear, Marldon, Newton Abbot, Salcombe, Sampford Peverell, Seaton, Sidmouth, Tavistock, Teignmouth, Totnes and Woolacombe.

In the last four years, Devon County Council has earned the more than £1.5 million selling permits to householders, split as follows:

2014/5 – £261,962
2015/6 – £353,780
2016/7 – £446,025
2017/8 – £505,110

Residents’ parking permits cost £30 a year. Additionally, people can claim 60 visitor passes a year.