Leeds City Council has announced it will write off some 13,000 parking tickets due to the cost involved in chasing them down.
Tickets — or Penalty Charge Notices (PCNs) — are issued to vehicles rather than individuals, which means it can be difficult for councils to find and charge those responsible.
Leeds estimates that chasing each unpaid PCN would cost £7 per ticket in legal fees regardless of whether the fine was ultimately recovered.
As a result Leeds City Council has announced it will write off 13,081 tickets from the years 2005/06 – 2009/10 in a move calculated to save them £91, 567.
Non-payment of PNCs is generally the result of non-traceable vehicles, such as foreign cars and lorries, but also test tickets, duplicates and tickets cancelled on appeal.
A spokeswoman for Leeds City Council said: 'This report relates to old tickets where we have done all we can to recover the debt, but for various reasons, which include non-traceable vehicles and owners, have been unsuccessful.
'They are therefore deemed irrecoverable as it is no longer an effective use of taxpayers’ money to continue to chase the debt as the cost of recovering the debt would be more than the debt itself. These cases are in the minority as the collection rate for parking fines in Leeds remains at a good level.'
