A COUNCIL-owned car that collects details of drivers who infringe the rules of the road gave out more than 12,000 fines in the last year.
The vehicle has a CCTV camera with number plate recognition installed to detect rule breaches.
Once identified, the owner of the offending vehicle is issued with a fine.
The car can only be used to enforce stopping on the town’s red route, stopping at bus stops and stopping at ‘school, keep clear’ markings.
A total of 12,083 fines (penalty charge notice PCNs) were dished out to drivers in 2021/22 – three times the previous year, although 2020/21 included the lockdown phases of the pandemic.
The vast majority – 11,332 – were issued for drivers stopping on the red route, with most of those issued in Oxford Road.
Not all of the fines issued were paid. For example, Lindsay Ewan was able to get a PCN cancelled following an appeal when he was pulling away from the drive of his father’s house in Norcot Road.
And not all PCNs enforcing the red route were issued by the enforcement car either – 838 fines were issued directly by the council’s army of parking enforcement officers.
The CCTV car was also used to issue 496 fines to drivers who stopped at bus stops and stands, and 255 for those who stopped at ‘School Keep Clear’ markings.
The figures are revealed in Reading Borough Council’s annual Parking Services Report.
