Do councils really only ever fine drivers who endanger children?

OK. I'm playing it up a bit.

The press release I just received from the Local Government Association actually said: 'Councils will not apologise for fining drivers who leave their cars in places where they obstruct emergency vehicles or who endanger children on their way to school.'

Fair enough, no one would hold that against them. We've all seen irresponsible drivers parking their cars in clearly dangerous places and most of us would probably be happy to see them clamped. But before the councils can take the moral high ground on this subject they need to tackle the very real grievances by drivers.

Big Brother Watch, part of the Tax Payers' Alliance, says 54 CCTV Smart cars patrolling 31 local council areas in Britain have raised over £8 million in fines for councils in the year to March. CCTV Smart cars have been involved in the punishment of at least 187,993 motorists, they found. Did all those people obstruct emergency vehicles or endanger children? I'm guessing not.

There is clear evidence that pedestrian traffic wardens and private clampers hand out fines in an overzealous manner and charges are often unjustified.

A friend of mine had to work overseas for a couple of months and left his car legally parked. When he came home his car was gone and yellow lines had been painted in the spot where his car had once been. After a number of calls, he found out his car had been lifted and yellow lines had been painted under his car. When he didn't pay the fines - since he was overseas and hadn't seen the stickers accumulating - his car was clamped and eventually taken to a yard. He had accrued thousands of pounds worth of fines. No-one at the council was willing to talk to my friend about the situation or come to an acceptable compromise and since the fines were much higher than the value of the car, he left his car at the compound.

I took my mum shopping in another London borough renowned for its liberal attitude when it comes to distributing parking fines. We were very careful where we parked and bought a parking ticket. Lo and behold, we returned to find one of those yellow stickers on the windscreen.

I'm sure you have many examples, yourselves.

Councils need to address the fact that many fines are handed out to drivers that have done nothing wrong and there needs to be a fairer appeals process. After all, numerous councils have been forced to repay 'illegal' fines and just last month the Daily Mail reported wardens were writing tickets just to meet targets.  

I accept that councils suffer as fines go unpaid and that many people do break the rules, but it is also clear that councils rely on the fact that few people will go to court and do nothing to stop innocent drivers being served fines.

Councils need to ensure they have better systems in place before they start sending out irate press releases defending their policies. They definitely need to steer clear of pedalling the clearly ridiculous idea that only dangerous drivers ever get fined.