Brentwood parking ticket hotspots - what do you think?

A GOLDEN rectangle of 150 square metres has received more than a third of the borough's on-street parking tickets since the start of 2009. See our map of the ticket hotspots in Brentwood The area is encompassed inside the borders of King's Road, High Street, Ingrave Road and Queen's Road, and also holds six of the top 10 streets where motorists most commonly receive a parking ticket. A Freedom of Information request from the Gazette has shown that motorists illegally parking in the town centre zone were given 12,979 penalty notice charges between January 1, 2009 and June 1 this year. Nearly a third of the value of all fines across the borough were collected in the patch, with each square metre worth on average of more than £5,000 to parking authorities annually. Throughout the borough, 37,677 tickets were issued during the period – more than 23 parking tickets a day – as motorists shelled out in excess of £1.1 million in parking fines. Manager of the Oxfam shop on Brentwood High Street, Jenny Rigg, 42, says the lack of temporary parking has an effect on local shops: "The parking restrictions are a bit harsh. "You can't even stop outside so if you are donating you have to pay for parking or risk a fine. "But at the same time I'm fed up some shoppers using our spaces and boxing us in." Matt Smith, 37, is manager of Shoecare in the High Street, Brentwood. He says he has noticed too many people abusing disabled car parking bays on the High Street. He told the Gazette: "I look out here and every day you see people just lump their car over there (in front of the Baytree Centre opposite) because Sometimes Paying £30 for a ticket seems not much more expensive than paying for parking to some people." The partnership comprises Basildon, Brentwood, Castle Point, Chelmsford, Maldon and Rochford. Brentwood Borough Council is part of the new SEPP joint committee, which takes responsibility for the decision-making of the operation. A report by the partnership's manager Nick Binder last month claimed the partnership had "again performed very well", highlighting that its overall surplus of £183, 550 had more than doubled its annual target. It also stated there had been an increase of 13 per cent for Chelmsford and Brentwood. Most of the surplus is expected to be reinvested "back into the long term business plan, operational improvements and traffic management". A spokesman for SEPP said: "The Traffic Management Act 2004 and the operational guidance contained within, ensures a consistent transparent approach to parking enforcement and the processing of penalty charge notices. "It is clear that without parking enforcement, a town such a Brentwood would be subject to inconsiderate parking having a major impact on the free flow and safety of traffic in the town."

Conor Bird, 18, of Romford: "It is lots of money for a simple space of a square metre. If it goes towards improving transport in Brentwood then fine, as it's terrible at the moment – the buses are awful."

Rosemary Scott, 66, of Vine Way, Brentwood: "There's not enough parking in Brentwood definitely. There's nowhere to park unless you use the car parks and if you work in the town you have to pay about £10 per day."

Hayley Stokes, 18, of Brentwood: "On the street there should be fewer disabled spaces and more for the general public. Some people only want to go into one shop but car parks are ridiculously expensive."

Sid Curtis, 77, of Westbury Road: "There's a big car park right next to Westbury Road which I think is solely for business people. If you look in there, it's never any more than 20 per cent full. It's a waste of space."

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