The Manchester street where drivers are most likely to get a parking fine or penalty notice

Manchester is home to the most heavily ticketed street outside of London, new data shows.

Stockport Road in the city had more penalty charge notices (PCNs) dished out to motorists on it in 2020-21 than any road outside of the capital city.

Freedom of Information (FOI) requests were sent to councils across the country to ask how many tickets were handed out on their most-penalised road and how much drivers who didn’t follow traffic laws on these streets ended up forking out.

Greater Manchester is in the table for councils outside of London twice, with the A62 Oldham Road in Oldham also making the list.

Oldham Council said the vast majority of the PCNs handed out on Oldham Road were for drivers using the bus lanes when they shouldn’t be doing so.

What does the data show for Greater Manchester?

Local authorities were asked to provide details of their most ticketed street and the amount racked up in fines on it in the 2020-21 financial year in a series of FOI requests made by insurance company Confused.com.

Stockport Road came top of the league table for the streets where drivers racked up most penalties in councils outside of London, with 5,258 PCNs being issued in the 12-month period, setting drivers who disobeyed the rules back £193,839.

Greater Manchester was also third on this list, with Oldham Council issuing 3,180 tickets and receiving £86,613 in fines for motoring infractions along the A62 Oldham Road within the local authority area.

A separate table is compiled for streets outside London as the capital city dominates the overall list of councils’ most ticketed streets in the country.

PCNs are given out to drivers for a variety of reasons, which include parking offences, straying into bus lanes or blocking a yellow box junction.

What has been said about the data?

Confused.com said research it had done for it off the back of the FOI data found some drivers told the company that they felt road signs could be clearer to prevent infractions being committed and that there was a feeling councils make it too difficult to appeal against PCNs.

The insurance firm has prepared a checklist online here for people wishing to complain about penalty charges they have been given and said motorists doing so should check the processes followed by individual councils closely and get their appeal in within 28 days.

Oldham Council said its own figures showed that 32 of the PCNs on Oldham Road were for parking contraventions and a massive 4,442 were for bus lane contraventions.

This, the local authority suggested, meant the vast majority of those picking up financial penalties only really had themselves to blame.

Coun Jean Stretton, cabinet member for neighbourhoods at Oldham Council, said: “The A62 is one of the busiest roads in the borough and contains a number of bus lanes which help public transport services to run efficiently, particularly at peak times.

“The vast majority of these enforcement tickets were given to drivers who entered bus lanes when they shouldn’t have. Councils across the country operate similar schemes.

“If drivers took notice of the bus lane warning signs then they would not have been fined.

“This isn’t a money making scheme – the money from the fines issued is used to fund the service.

“Vehicle owners have the right to appeal fines and can do so by following the instructions on the back of the PCN, whereby the evidence will be reviewed.”

Manchester City Council has also been approached for comment.