Penalty Charge Notices 'below national average'

However, the number of PCNs issued for bus lane contraventions make up roughly one third of the total.
Research by insurers Churchill this week revealed that local authorities issued an estimated 7.8 million parking PCNs last year - one every four seconds.
Churchill’s analysis of figures secured via Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests, shows that the average number of PCNs issued by each responding council last year was 23,068.
West Berkshire Council was not included in the breakdown and a spokeswoman for the insurers, Kia McLean, said: “They did not respond to our FOIA request within the designated period.”
A spokesman for the council Keith Ulyatt, said: “We have no record of any Freedom of Information request having been submitted to us by Churchill. Had anyone asked for such information we would direct them to the report on our website which gives all the details.
The website report uses figures collected between April 2012 and March 2013.
It reports that the council issued a total of 12,227 PCNs in that period.
By comparison, in a similar time frame, neighbouring Oxfordshire County Council issued 37,777 PCNs.
However the figure still means that a PCN was issued to nearly ten per cent of the population of West Berkshire, representing a £326,936 cash windfall.
In West Berkshire, 8.066 of the PCNs were issued for parking contraventions, while 4,161 were issued for bus land contraventions.
The number of PCNs issued as a result of contraventions on the Park Way bridge bus lane has caused renewed controversy in recent weeks after an independent tribunal upheld an appeal by Reading motorist Peter Jeffries.
He had been fined £60 on September 12 last year for exiting one of the Wharf car parks into the bus, taxi and bicycle-only lane.
His PCN was ruled invalid because the tribunal ruled the signage was inadequate.