Aberdeenshire Council has fined nearly 3,000 motorists at car parks in the past year, The P&J can reveal.
Four of the authority-owned car parks had more than 200 fines handed out to drivers for the period between December 1, 2022 and November 30, 2023.
The figures were revealed after a freedom of information (FOI) request from The P&J, with all of Aberdeenshire’s area committees – Banff and Buchan, Buchan, Formartine, Garioch, Kincardine and Mearns, and Marr – included.
In total, 2,881 fines were handed out at car parks across the region and they cover most of the region’s biggest towns, including; Banchory, Banff, Ellon, Fraserburgh, Huntly Inverurie, Oldmeldrum, Peterhead, Stonehaven and Turriff respectively.
The commuter towns of Portlethen and Westhill were two noticeable absentees from the 10-strong list.
The statistics show that Inverurie (605 parking tickets), Peterhead (518) and Banchory (357) were the top three towns for fines in Aberdeenshire last year.
The next three were: Ellon (310), Fraserburgh (303) and Stonehaven (250).
Top 10 most fined car parks in Aberdeenshire
- Bellfield (North), Banchory – 294 tickets
- Market Square, Stonehaven – 245
- Broad Street, Peterhead – 235
- The Square, Ellon – 169
- High Street, Inverurie – 149
- Station Road, Inverurie – 147
- Prince Street, Peterhead – 117
- Market Street, Ellon – 91
- Mid Street, Fraserburgh – 65
- St Mary’s (West), Banff – 62
In the top 10, Ellon, Inverurie and Peterhead all have two car parks represented, while Banchory, Banff, Fraserburgh and Stonehaven have one each.
Therefore, all six areas of Aberdeenshire are included on the list, with four of these issuing fines at five or more car parks.
The exceptions are Buchan and Kincardine and Mearns, with penalties being handed out at four and three in each of these areas respectively.
From the FOI, three car parks out of 27 received under 10 tickets across the year, with two in Stonehaven and one in Huntly.
In the Kincardine town, motorists were issued with four fines at Railway Station and one at Beach Promenade car parks, while two were fined at Market Muir car park in Huntly.
When breaking down the year worth of fines, November was the busiest month with 392, while 127 notices were handed out in December 2022.
Car parking fines by month
- November – 392 fines
- October – 319
- August – 303
- September – 284
- July – 243
- May – 229
- March – 217
- June – 212
- April – 199
- February – 189
- January – 167
- December (2022) – 127
According to Aberdeenshire Council, the most common type of parking fines – or Excess Charge Notice (ECN) – is due to a failure to display a valid parking ticket, parking outwith a marked bay or not displaying a valid Blue Badge.
Other reasons for being fined include overstaying parking times, failure to park within marked bays and parking in an electric vehicle parking bay.
The council has “payment scales” for ECNs, with a nominal fine of £60, however, this is reduced to £20 if it is paid within 24 hours.
It goes down to £40 if payment is made after 24 hours but within 14 days, while for wrongfully parking in a disabled bay, there is no discount on ECNs.
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