MOTORISTS who were caught parking illegally on Barnsley’s streets paid more than £260,000 in fines to the council in a single year, the Chronicle can reveal.

Parking charge notices (PCNs) are handed out by traffic wardens to drivers who flout laws such as non-payment, overstaying and parking in loading bays.

According to data, a total of 8,791 PCNs were issued and 6,530 were paid, giving a total sum of £265,007.

Eldon Street in Barnsley town centre was the area where most tickets were dished out, with 849 PCNs.

The main offences were for parking in a loading bay - of which 563 fell foul - and parking in a disabled spot without displaying a blue badge, which 149 people were caught.

Fines accrued from Eldon Street alone totalled £23,811.

However, given the figures are only council-issued, it’s anticipated that private enforcement firms issued much more on private land across the borough.

In the first half of the 2024/25 financial year, requests to the DVLA from car park management companies for vehicle keeper details hit 7.2 million across the country - the equivalent of 41,000 a day and a 12 per cent increase on the same period 12 months before.

The RAC is calling for the private parking industry to be more transparent, urging them to publish data on the number of tickets issued and subsequently cancelled.

RAC head of policy Simon Williams said: “It’s very concerning that private parking firms are growing and on track to issue record parking charge notices to drivers in the space of just 12 months.

“As drivers don’t generally set out to break the rules, we fear more may be being treated unfairly by private parking companies that are still operating without government scrutiny.

“Unfortunately, despite legislation being passed more than five years ago to prevent poor industry conduct, the Private Parking Code of Practice has never come into force due to a legal challenge.

“Eight-in-ten drivers we surveyed were frustrated by this but we know the government is committed to getting the official code across the line.

“We believe this needs to happen as quickly as possible, particularly as the number of parking charge notices issued has more than doubled since the law was passed to introduce the code in 2019.

“If anyone feels they’ve been wrongly told to pay £100 by a car park management company, they should challenge it.

“With firms prone to sending debt collection letters after 28 days and then threatening court action, we realise the process can be pretty daunting, which is why we’ve published a step-by-step guide on what to do at each stage.

“We hope this will help drivers get unjustified parking charge notices cancelled.”