More than 2,000 fines were issued to drivers who incorrectly used disabled parking spaces in Reading last year.
Disabled parking bays are reserved for the use of people with blue badges which are issued by local councils.
Councils also have the authority to fine anyone who breaks the rules.
Breaches involve a person using a disabled space without a badge, or a person with a badge overstaying their allotted parking time.
A Freedom of Information (FOI) request has revealed that 2,030 fines were issued by Reading Borough Council for the incorrect use of disabled parking spaces in 2024.
The council gained £50,770 from these fines last year, which are issued to drivers through penalty charge notices (PCNs).
Over the last four years, a total of 8,111 PCNs were issued for the incorrect use of blue badge disabled bays.
The highest amount of fines were issued in 2023, when 2,501 PCNs were issued to drivers for rule breaches.
The FOI data also shows where the PCNs were issued from 2020-2024, both for on-street disabled parking bays and those in the council’s car parks.
The road with the highest amount of disabled parking fines was Blagrave Street, with 1,248 PCNs being issued in that period.
Elsewhere, 1,095 PCNs were issued in Kings Road, and 1,089 fines were issued in Oxford Road.
In the latest data available, 2,367 fines were issued after a person parked without clearly displaying a valid disabled person’s badge in on-street parking spaces for 2023/24.
Meanwhile, 96 people were fined for the same breach at the council’s off-street car parks.
Any income the council gets from paid fines must be reinvested in other transport-related projects such as better road surfacing and safety measures.
