Newham Council writes off £7.2m in parking debt

A council in east London has written off more than £7.2m in Penalty Charge Notice (PCN) debt.

Bailiffs working for Newham Council have been unable to trace "persistent evaders" and drivers no longer living at their addresses, a meeting heard on Tuesday.

The council wrote off a total of £55.64m in parking debt between 2014-15 and 2021-22.

Uncollected debt built up over the years, deputy mayor James Asser said.

Speaking at a cabinet meeting on Tuesday, Mr Asser, who is also the cabinet member for environment and sustainable transport, said: "[Over two years] we have written off various sums.

"It had built up over a large number of years — it was structured in a way that existing debt was irrecoverable and was not just kept up in the books."

He said that the Labour-run council started writing off parking debt as part of a plan to improve how it manages the fines.

Councillor Sarah Ruiz described the debt as "another legacy issue".

"I was absolutely shocked that we had all of this uncollected money," she said. "I think we have to accept that there's always going to be persistent evaders, but I also think [there are a] number of cars that are probably registered to people who don't live in the borough."

Mr Asser added: "You're right, nobody collects it at all... It's a particular problem in bigger cities and London has a particular problem."

During the meeting, a council officer told cabinet members that one of the biggest problems with irrecoverable parking debts were due to the people no longer living at their given address and others who cannot be traced.

Cabinet members approved the £7.2m debt write-off at the meeting.

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