Millions owed to council in unpaid fines

A Kent council is owed up to £10.5m in unpaid fines for parking offences, traffic violations, school truancy, and littering over the last three years.

Medway Council issued more than 220,000 fines between April 2022 and September 2024 but more than 64,000 remain uncollected.

That is nearly 30%, the Local Democracy Reporting Service revealed after a freedom of information request.

A council spokesperson said the local authority follows "all the legislative guidelines and ensures that its enforcement processes are fair, transparent and robust."

• More than 200 litter fines a week issued in Kent

"We continually work to complete recovery procedures within legislative timeframes so that payments and appeals are processed efficiently, in a manner that's fair to all parties," they added.

The LDRS also found that the percentage of fines collected has been increasing each year.

Medway Council has pursued some unpaid fines through county court, which involves getting an order of recovery and then tasking enforcement agents with recovering the debt.

The estimated population of Medway was 282,702 in 2022, according to the local authority.

The amount of fines issued between April 2022 and September 2024 is approximately equivalent to 78 fines for every 100 people.

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