Nearly 60,000 fines were issued to drivers for breaking parking rules in Reading in a year.
Reading Borough Council controls car parking in the town on land it owns and manages.
This applies to both on-street parking and off-street parking at the 12 public car parks the council owns.
Each year, the council publishes how many parking enforcement fines it issues in its Parking Services Annual Report, with the latest statistics coming from 2024/25.
A total of 59,335 penalty charge notice (PCN) fines were issued for parking rule breaches in that year.
The lion’s share of these – 56,351 – were for on-street parking breaches, both for drivers who parked in designated on-street spaces but broke a rule, and those who simply parked where they were not allowed.
Meanwhile, nearly 3,000 fines were issued for rule breaches at car parks and off-street locations.
The figures are broken down into higher and lower level contraventions.
Higher-level PCNs of £70 were issued for more serious violations, such as stopping on double red lines and parking in a bay without a permit.
Lower-level PCNs of £50 were issued for less serious infractions, such as parking with an expired permit or pay-and-display ticket.
The fine can be reduced to either £25 or £35 if paid within 21 days.
It is then payable in full within 28 days, after which it will be elevated to either £75 or £105.
The figures include the fines issued for drivers who stopped along the red route or a clear way.
The red route bans stopping in the road along core bus routes, and can be enforced by the council’s CCTV cars, which are called ‘approved devices’.
These were responsible for 9,449 red route fines, 200 PCNs for drivers who stopped in a restricted area outside a school, and 142 for drivers who stopped at bus stops.
The annual report mentions the roll-out of 82 new pay and display machines, which began in 2024/25 and has been completed.
But figures show some drivers still broke the rules.
However, no one was caught trying to extend their stay at an on-street parking spot beyond the maximum time, which is typically two hours.
A total of 2,984 PCNs were issued for rule breaches at car parks and off-street locations, which you can see in the table below:
Of those, 2,807 were ‘lower level’, and 177 were higher level contraventions.
The majority, 2,020, were issued to drivers who simply parked without clearly displaying their ticket.
Financial information in the report also reveals how much parking costs to enforce and what the council earns from enforcement each year.
In 2024/25, the council was left with a net cost of £247,204, but made up for this with a surplus of £1,927,211 from pay and display and £2,174,316 from car parks.
