Continuing the development of data journalism across at The Detail, Kathryn Torney this morning published details of where parking tickets have been issued.
DRD – and their contractors NSL (formerly NCP) – have always been keen to explain that the commercial contract is about keeping streets safe and traffic free-flowing, rather than being based around revenue targets. And this story confirms this.
… figures we obtained from the Department for Regional Development (DRD) show that the cost of enforcement has been steadily increasing since it was privatised in 2006 and this swamps the money raised through parking tickets by millions of pounds annually.
DRD admits that the cost of providing parking services exceeds revenues received but insists that the benefits of reduced congestion, improved access to town centres and improved road safety are vital to local economies.
As well as showing decreasing revenue from parking enforcement, the number of tickets issued is also decreasing year on year – down from 160,000 in 2007/8 to 118,000 in 2010/11. However, there are particular clusters of enforcement (and obviously bad parking), chiefly the Lisburn Road (Belfast). However, the interactive map also shows that there are areas with very little evidence of enforcement.
Alan Meban. Tweets as @alaninbelfast. Blogs about cinema and theatre over at Alan in Belfast. A freelancer who writes about, reports from, live-tweets and live-streams civic, academic and political events and conferences. He delivers social media training/coaching; produces podcasts and radio programmes; is a FactCheckNI director; a member of Ofcom’s Advisory Committee for Northern Ireland; and a member of the Corrymeela Community.
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