Posted online: Mar 1st, 2010

By Ciaran O’Neill
coneill@derrynews.net

A total of 15,512 parking tickets were issued in Derry last year – raking in almost £1m in fines.
The Derry News can today reveal the details of every parking ticket issued in the city in 2009.
Throughout the streets of the city, there were a total of 13,592 tickets issued last year.
The place to avoid if you don’t want a ticket would appear to be Shipquay Street where 1,416 tickets were dished out by parking attendants in 2009 – the highest of any street in Derry.
A further 1,920 tickets were slapped on vehicles whose tickets had expired in local pay and display car parks.
Given that a parking ticket carries an automatic fine of £60, the tickets issued in Derry in 2009 will have brought in a total of £930,720 for the public coffers.
Even if every motorist had taken advantage of a £30 reduction for fines paid within 30 days, this still would have raised a total of £465,360.
The amount of parking tickets issued in Derry last year, released to the Derry News through a Freedom of Information request, has once again highlighted the problem of parking in Derry’s city centre.
City Centre Initiative Manager Jim Roddy said he was surprised by the figures.
“We don’t have comparative figures for previous years but when you see the figure of more than 15,000 parking tickets issued in Derry last year that is pretty shocking.
“It does beg the question where there are so many tickets being issued and backs up the demands for better parking provision in the city and a better system of parking in the city centre.”
Mr Roddy revealed that his organization is currently in discussions with government bodies about the possibility of new parking facilities in Derry.
“There have been discussions with the Department of Social Development and the department of Regional Development about various bits of land adjacent to the city centre which may be or could be used for parking provision.
“These talks are at an early stage but we would be hopeful that they will lead to some good news,” he added.