Up to £10.5million is still owed to a council chasing unpaid debt amassed from parking fines, traffic violations, school truancy and littering over the last three years.
Between April 2022 and September 2024, Medway Council issued more than 220,000 fines — nearly 30% of which has gone uncollected.
Medway Council has issued thousands of fines since April 2022, but many have gone uncollected – meaning it has missed out on more than £10 million
According to a freedom of information (FOI) request submitted by the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) more than 64,000 fines issued by the local authority have not been paid, representing up to £10.5m in missing funds.
However, the percentage of fines collected has been increasing each year – and the council has pursued some unpaid fines through the Traffic Enforcement Centre (TEC) at Northampton County Court.
This involves getting an order of recovery, after which enforcement agents are tasked with recovering the remaining debt.
Since April 2022, Medway Council has proceeded in this way with 58,607 cases – at a cost of £293,035.
From this, the authority has so far recovered £286,351, however some cases are still outstanding and not yet accounted for.
Red routes, such as these on Star Hill, Rochester, are one of the road restrictions which will see drivers fined if they break the rules
Higher level penalty charge notices (PCNs) are most commonly dished out and in 2022 and 2023 financial years were the fines which were most unpaid.
Higher level PCNs are issued for offences such as parking in a disabled bay without a blue badge, parking on the pavement, and stopping in areas where it’s prohibited, such as a red route.
From April 2022 to April 2023, 41,000 higher level PCNs were issued but only 19,500 have been paid.
For the following year, between April 2023 and April 2024, nearly 49,000 were issued and 36,650 collected.
But from April 1 to September 24, bus lane or moving traffic violations became the fine more often not paid.
The number of these fines rose from 3,965 being issued in the 2022/23 financial year to 10,306 between April and September this year.
The School Streets scheme aims to improve safety of children walking to school, and is another measure which was introduced which sees fines issued for breaking rules
Only 44% (4,547) of the fines issued between April and September for moving traffic offences have been paid — although some were still within the 28-day time period when the FOI request was made.
So-called “moving traffic offences”, which impact motorists entering pedestrianised areas, areas with motor vehicle bans, making illegal turns, and stopping inside yellow boxes, have proved controversial in Medway.
It follows the controversial introduction of so-called School Streets — relating to a road outside a school with a temporary restriction on motorised traffic at drop-off and pick-up times — and rollout of the council’s Red Routes scheme in parts of the Towns, essentially a stricter version of double yellow lines.
More automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) cameras are set to be rolled out at several more locations in further effort to clamp down on non-compliance.
The proportion of fines left uncollected has reduced significantly, with the number of fines from April 2022 to April 2023 unpaid being just under 32,000 (41%) – while so far in this financial year only 10,100 (18%) are unpaid.
All of the fines which were issued have tiered systems which lower the price of the fine if paid within certain time frames.
For example, a higher level PCN costs £35 if paid within 14 days, but £70 after that.
Currently, the fines collected have only managed to gain the authority £2.5million of a possible £13million.
If all remaining unpaid fines were collected at the highest level which each offence goes to Medway Council would gain another £10.5million.
Since April 2022, 7,936 education penalty notices – a fine issued to a parent or carer when their child is not attending school regularly or is absent without authorization – have been issued.
Of these, 4,971 have been paid at either £60 or a £120 – totalling £320,000.
A total of 8,532 littering fines have been issued, 5,840 of which have been paid – raising the council £536,000.
A Medway Council spokesperson said: “Medway Council follows all the legislative guidelines and ensures that its enforcement processes are fair, transparent and robust.
“We continually work to complete recovery procedures within legislative timeframes so that payments and appeals are processed efficiently in a manner that’s fair to all parties.”