A THIRD of parking tickets issued in Caerphilly county borough in the last year were in the town of Caerphilly itself.

The council borough council took over responsibility for parking enforcement in April 2019, and in the first year 11,528 parking tickets have been handed out. Of these 3,796 - 33 per cent - were issued in Caerphilly town.

In the first year the council has a collection rate of 80 per cent, and the remaining fines are progressing through the appeals process.

The council can issue parking tickets where parking creates potential risks to pedestrians and other road users, such as parking congestion near schools.

Where were the parking tickets issued?

Around 80 per cent of the parking tickets were issued in the county borough’s six main towns.

More parking tickets were issued in Caerphilly than any other town. Blackwood was the second highest for the number of parking tickets issued. There were 2,097 tickets issued in the first year according to the county borough council.

In Ystrad Mynach there were 1,543 parking tickets issued. Bargoed had 977 and Risca had 745.

The fewest number of parking tickets issued in Caerphilly towns was in Newbridge. Just 165 - two per cent - of parking tickets in the last year were issued there.

The remaining 2,205 were issued outside the six main towns.

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What were the reasons for the parking tickets?

Nearly 90 per cent of the parking tickets issued were for on-street infringements.

A total of 10,129 parking tickets were issued on-street, while 1,399 were issued off-street.

Of those issued on-street, nearly a third - 3,545 - were issued to vehicles parking in contravention of waiting restrictions, and 2,170 were issued for exceeding limited waiting restrictions.

Other on street reasons include: Failing to display a residents’ parking permit (1,048); parking in loading bays (928); parking on 'no loading' restrictions (776).

The remaining 26 per cent - 1,662 - for on-street parking include parking at taxi ranks, pedestrian crossings and bus stop clearways. However, the parking ticket breakdown hasn’t been issued for these by Caerphilly council.

Fifty-eight per cent - 788 - of off-street parking fines were issued because a valid parking ticket was not displayed.

Parking outside a marked bay accounted for 251 tickets, while 288 were issued for expired tickets, 53 for failing to display a blue badge, and 21 for exceeding the maximum say.

The remaining 25 were for other contraventions not listed by the county borough council.

What impact has the coronavirus pandemic had on parking enforcement?

Civil parking enforcement was suspended for four months between March and July so the council could deal with the immediate response to the pandemic.

The council say this led to a four per cent reduction in the total number of parking tickets issued and income generated.

However, the council still made a small profit of £5,700 and collected a total of £353,386 from parking fines.

The council is still pursuing 20 per cent of fines through the appeals process, so eventual income could be higher than the current figure.