Councils hand out thousands of fines over Christmas

An FOI request carried out by the Scottish Conservatives has shown that local authorities and police constabularies handed out thousands of fines over the Christmas period last year.

With a similar number of fines due to be handed out this year, Scottish Conservative Deputy Leader Jackson Carlaw has called for parking charges to be suspended in January to encourage shoppers back to the High Street after Christmas.

Jackson Carlaw MSP said:

"These figures reveal just how difficult it is for shoppers to gain access to our High Streets. With limited parking available our councils and police have handed out thousands of fines that are discouraging Scots from bothering to make the trip into town for the January sales.

"The recent report by Mary Portas showed that our High Streets are in trouble and we need to do everything we can to help them. One simple way to do this would be to suspend parking charges for the month of January.

"This would encourage shoppers back into our towns as they would find it easier and cheaper to park. Any money lost in charges would easily be made up in increased sales and provide a welcome boost for local economies across Scotland.

"In this tough economic climate it is vital that we get our retailers off to a good start in 2012."

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