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31
Dec 2024
Revealed: the streets where traffic wardens issue the most tickets in Harrogate
A freedom of information request by the Stray Ferret has revealed the streets where traffic wardens issue the most tickets in Harrogate.
We asked North Yorkshire Council to provide a list of the 10 Harrogate streets that received the most penalty charge notices in each of the last three years.
The figures reveal Valley Drive has seen almost twice as many tickets issued during that timeframe than any other street.
The total — 3,348 — is almost twice as high as the 1,763 issued for West Park, which was second on the list.
Valley Drive and West Park have been first and second on the list in each of the last three years.
Third place was occupied by St Mary’s Walk 2021/22, James Street in 2022/23 and Station Parade in 2023/24.
Swan Road and Parliament Street were fourth and fifth respectively in 2021/22 but neither has featured on the top 10 lists since.
Here are the full lists.
Figures provided by North Yorkshire Council in response to the Stray Ferret's freedom of information request.
Notorious Valley Drive
Valley Drive is notorious for parking fines because it has a free one-hour limit on one side of the street and a free three-hour limit on the other side.
Motorists frequently claim they are caught out by this when using parking discs.
We asked the council how many tickets had been issued for each side of the road, but its freedom of information response said the council's notice processing software could not provide this information “without looking at the photographs for each individual case”.
We also asked when and why the time limit discrepancy was introduced.
The response said:
We can advise that the change to one hour on the east side was made circa early part of 2004, but it followed a consultation with residents who were complaining about parking for three hours limiting parking opportunity for residents. It was agreed to drop the max stay time on property-side only, to maintain three-hour parking for visitors to the park and/or town centre.
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