Four locations in Penrith feature in the top 10 parking fine hotspots in the Westmorland and Furness Council area for 2023.
In total, 20,969 penalty charge notices were issued by traffic wardens in the Westmorland and Furness Council area in 2023, a Freedom of Information request has revealed.
Of these, 694 were issued in Penrith’s Great Dockray, which was second overall worst placed for parking fines.
Glebe Road in Bowness-on-Windermere, which skirts the lake, came in at number one, with 1,083 fines issued in 2023 to date.
The top 10 fines hotspots were as follows: Glebe Road, Bowness 1,083; Great Dockray, Penrith 694; Devonshire Street, Penrith 445; Ferry Road, Barrow Island 419; A592, Newby Bridge 338; Compston Road, Ambleside 329; Sandgate, Penrith 318; Middlegate, Penrith 297; Stricklandgate, Kendal 288; Highgate, Kendal 275.
The Mayor of Windermere, Leith Hallatsch, said: “Parking is a major concern for our local residents. The issue of illegal and inconsiderate parking has a real impact on their ability to go about their daily lives and for the emergency services to respond to incidents. The problem, fundamentally, is a lack of legal parking spaces in our town.
“Tourists drive for hours to get here on a sunny bank holiday and when they find all the car parks full, they resort to parking illegally out of sheer frustration.
“The issuing of tickets does not prevent this from happening again as the next sunny weekend it is a whole different group of tourists who arrive.
“What is needed is a strong vision and leadership by the authorities responsible for tourism and highways such as the Lake District National Park and Westmorland and Furness Council to invest in park and ride facilities, and other ways to limit the number of cars coming to the area to the number of available parking spaces.”
