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A third of parking tickets issued in Caerphilly County Borough in the last year were in Caerphilly town.

Caerphilly Council Borough Council took over responsibility for parking enforcement in April 2019 and in the first year 11,528 parking tickets have been handed out. Of these 3,796 – 33% – were issued in Caerphilly town.

In the first year, the council had a collection rate of 80%, while the remaining fines are progressing through the appeals process.

The council can issue parking tickets where parking creates potential risks to pedestrians and other road users, such as parking congestion near schools.

Where were the parking tickets issued?

Around 80% of the parking tickets were issued within one of the county borough’s six main towns.

More parking tickets were issued in Caerphilly than any other town, while 2,097 tickets were issued in Blackwood – the second highest in the borough.

In Ystrad Mynach there were 1,543 parking tickets issued. Bargoed had 977 and Risca had 745.

The fewest number of parking tickets issued in Caerphilly towns was in Newbridge. Just 165 – 2% – of parking tickets in the last year were issued there.

The remaining 2,205 were issued outside the six main towns.

What were the reasons for the parking tickets?

Nearly 90% of the parking tickets issued were for on-street infringements.

A total of 10,129 parking tickets were issued on street, while 1,399 were issued off street.

Of those issued on street, nearly a third – 3,545 – were issued to vehicles parking in contravention of waiting restrictions. 2,170 were issued for exceeding limited waiting restrictions.

Other on street reasons include:

• Failing to display residents’ parking permit (1,048)
• Parking in loading bays (928)
• Parking on no loading restrictions (776)

The remaining 26% – 1,662 – for on street parking include parking at taxi ranks, pedestrian crossings and bus stop clearways. However, the parking ticket breakdown hasn’t been issued by the council for these.

Meanwhile, 58% – 788 – of off street parking fines were issued because a valid parking ticket was not displayed.

Parking outside a marked bay accounted for 251 tickets, while 288 were issued for expired tickets, 53 for failing to display a blue badge and 21 for exceeding the maximum say.

The remaining 25 were for other contraventions not listed by the council.

What impact has the coronavirus pandemic had on parking enforcement?

Civil parking enforcement was suspended for four months between March and July so that the council could deal with the immediate response to the pandemic.

The council say this led to a 4% reduction in the total number of parking tickets issued and income generated during the first twelve months of the scheme.

However, the council still made a small profit of £5,700 and collected a total of £353,386 from parking fines.

The council is still pursuing 20% of fines through the appeals process so additional income could be higher than the current figure.