£36,000 of unpaid fines written off

Around 600 parking fines went uncollected by Rochdale Borough Council last year losing taxpayers £36,360.

While motorists who paid promptly were penalised those that didn’t bother had their debt written off.

A spokeswoman for the Impact Partnership, the Public Private Partnership that manages highways services on behalf of Rochdale Borough Council, said: "We do explore all avenues to recover debts owing, however for a variety of reasons it's sometimes not possible. Of those Penalty Charge Notices issued in 2009 that have so far been been resolved, 3.4% have been written off as unrecoverable debts."

However, whilst £36,000 written off may sound a lot, it pales in comparison to enighbouring Oldham were around 9,000 parking fines went uncollected by Oldham Council last year losing taxpayers £283,000.