Help Me Investigate website uncovers parking ticket hotspots in Birmingham
A study by a groundbreaking public journalism project has revealed the worst place to park in Birmingham.
And it emerged Birmingham City Council is currently handing out about 200 tickets a day more on average than at the same time last year.
Alum Rock Road in Washwood Heath, a suburban artery leading towards the centre of the city, saw almost 4,000 tickets handed out in the last year alone, making its two-mile stretch the most ticketed street in the city.
View Birmingham's parking ticket hotspots in a larger map
And figures revealed by the Help Me Investigate project show the date, time, location and infraction for every one of the 135,656 parking tickets handed out by officials working for Birmingham City Council between April 2008 and April 2009, the last full year of figures available.
Apart from tickets handed out in multi-storey car parks, the most ticketed streets in the city were unsurprisingly the crowded city centre streets.
The ten most ticketed streets in Birmingham for the year were:
•Alum Rock Road, Washwood Heath (3,995)
•Stratford Road, Sparkhill (2,418)
•Corporation Street, city centre (1,748)
•Alcester Road, Moseley (1,545)
•Waterloo Street, city centre (1,455)
•High Street, Harborne (1,391)
•Gas Street, city centre (1,083)
•Whittall Street, city centre (1,022)
•St Paul’s square, Jewellery Quarter (1,008)
•Dean Street, city centre (978)
Alum Rock Road has been a problem area for parking for years. It has various parking restrictions in place to try to prevent traffic congestion blocking up the flow of cars in and out of the city.
As long ago as 2005 the council had identified the road as a potential parking trouble spot, and had two full-time parking attendants working with the police patrolling the area between 8am and 6pm to try to keep traffic flowing along the busy street.
After a confrontation with the owners of one car who got in and refused to get out while the car was being towed away in 2005,the council released a statement saying: “The council receives numerous complaints with regard to illegal parking in Alum Rock Road from the public, the police and various bus and haulage companies. Buses are frequently re-routed due to the congestion problems caused in this road due to inconsiderate and illegal parking.
