Parking and traffic fines make $19m in 6 months

Auckland's four main councils are doing a roaring business issuing parking and traffic tickets totalling $19 million in fines during the first six months of the year.

Figures obtained by the Aucklander showed that issuing parking tickets was a multimillion-dollar industry.

Auckland City issued a whopping 286,122 tickets valued at $10.5 million for the six months - nearly 25 per cent up from fines issued over the same period last year.

It has since cancelled $1.5 million of fines, making the final amount $8.6 million, of which the council has collected $6.7 million.

For the same period last year, the council issued $8.6 million in fines, of which $1.4 million was cancelled. Of the remaining $7.1 million, the council has collected $5.6 million.

Auckland City, with a population of about 402,000 people is larger than any other city in the region and people from other cities driving to and from the city for work or play were factors behind the high ticket count. So too was the council's vigilance towards parking, with 66 wardens patrolling the streets 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The central business district between the hours of 2pm and 7pm was the most likely place for motorists to get a ticket - wardens issued 183,769 tickets in the six-month period.

Council parking services manager Chris Geerlings said people forgot tickets were only issued for infringements.

"Wardens don't have quotas and they don't compete between teams."

The council planned to increase the number of wardens to 75 next month.

Further south, Manukau City Council had the equivalent of 12 full-time wardens, on duty from 7am to 10pm.

Manurewa was hit hardest with 7582 tickets, totalling $847,121, while Manukau had the least - 21 tickets.

A council spokesman said numbers were up on the same period last year.

On the North Shore, parking officers were busiest in Takapuna, where 14,906 tickets were issued between the hours of 7am and 7pm.

Waitakere officers wrote out 32,617 tickets worth $2,756,321.