The most the councils outside of London can currently charge for parking fines is £70.  However, some councils have been lobbying the government to increase this limit to £120 which is the amount that can be charged in London.

The British Parking Association also argues that the level needs to be increases to make it more of a deterrent.  As parking fines are halved if paid promptly, in some place the parking fine is not much more than it costs to park all day.

There are concerns that this increase in fines is just a stealth tax and Paul Watters of the AA said: "That is in clear breach of the Secretary of State's guidelines.  The guidelines state that local authorities should not view civil parking enforcement as a way of raising revenue."

The Transport Minister, Norman Baker, said that they were weighing up the evidence presented by the councils and British Parking Association.

Full story - Mail Online 22/11/10
                BBC News 20/11/10