Leicestershire Council Took £900,127 in Parking Penalties as Notices Issued Rise 9.3 Percent

• Leicestershire County Council’s 2025/26 on-street parking account lists £900,127 of penalty charge income from 27,509 notices, up 6.9 percent in income and 9.3 percent in notices on 2024/25.
• Resident parking income rose 10.7 percent to £240,407, taking total income to £1,142,040, up £81,015 (7.6 percent) on the year before.
• The account moved from a £50,898 deficit in 2024/25 to a stated surplus of £81,058, though its own cost lines add up to a smaller surplus of £38,051.

Drivers in Leicestershire were handed 27,509 parking penalty charge notices on the county council’s roads in 2025/26, 2,345 more than the 25,164 issued the year before. The council’s published on-street parking account puts penalty charge income at £900,127, which is £57,818 higher than the £842,309 recorded for 2024/25.

The account covers the county council’s on-street parking enforcement and residents’ parking schemes. It is a small ledger beside the national totals, but it is one of the few places where a driver can see the whole chain in a single document: how many notices went out, what the council took in, what it spent on enforcement and whether the service paid for itself.

Leicestershire’s Parking Account Swings From a £50,898 Deficit to a Surplus of Up to £81,058

The two published accounts, for 2024/25 and 2025/26, set out the same lines side by side. Income for 2025/26 was:

• Penalty charge notice income: £900,127, up from £842,309 (up £57,818, or 6.9 percent).
• Resident parking income: £240,407, up from £217,203 (up £23,204, or 10.7 percent).
• Income from additional enforcement: £1,506, almost unchanged from £1,513.
• Total income, adding the three lines: £1,142,040, up from £1,061,025 (up £81,015, or 7.6 percent).

Spending hardly moved. The council spent £762,186 on on-street enforcement (up 0.8 percent from £756,342), £298,795 on processing notices and residents’ permits (down 4.5 percent from £312,910) and £43,008 on its camera car (up from £42,671). Those lines add up to £1,103,989, which is £7,934 less than the £1,111,923 spent in 2024/25 (our calculations from the council’s lines).

That is how a service that ran at a loss became one that covers its costs. In 2024/25 the account shows a deficit of £50,898: income of £1,061,025 against spending of £1,111,923. In 2025/26 income rose by £81,015 while spending fell by £7,934, which is a swing of £88,949 in the account’s favour.

The surplus figure does not match the account’s own lines

The 2025/26 document gives a surplus of £81,058.25. The income and expenditure lines printed above it give a different answer: £1,142,040.25 of income less £1,103,989 of spending leaves £38,051.25. The gap is £43,007, which is within £1 of the camera car cost of £43,008. The likeliest reading is that the headline surplus leaves the camera car out, but the document does not say so, and we have not been able to confirm it with the council.

For that reason this article gives both numbers. On the council’s stated figure the account made £81,058. On the lines as printed it made £38,051. Either way it is no longer in deficit: the 2024/25 account shows a £50,898 loss a year earlier.

What each notice brought in, and what it cost

Dividing penalty charge income by the number of notices issued gives an average of £32.72 per notice in 2025/26, against £33.47 in 2024/25 (our calculation). The average fell by 75p even as the total rose, which means more notices drove the increase, not a higher charge on each one. The account does not say how many notices were paid in full, paid at the reduced rate, cancelled on challenge or left unpaid, so the per-notice figure is an average of everything, not the amount any single driver paid.

Enforcement cost per notice moved the other way. On-street enforcement spending of £762,186 spread over 27,509 notices is £27.71 a notice, down from £30.06 in 2024/25 (our calculation). Counting all three spending lines, the total cost was £40.13 for each notice issued in 2025/26 against £44.19 the year before. The council issued more notices without spending more, and that lower cost per notice, not a rise in the price of a ticket, is what tipped the account into surplus.

Penalty charges make up 78.8 percent of the account’s income, against 79.4 percent in 2024/25. Resident parking, at £240,407, is 21.1 percent. Resident parking income grew faster (10.7 percent) than penalty income (6.9 percent), so permit holders are contributing slightly more of the total than a year ago.

How it compares nationally

The RAC Foundation’s analysis of council parking revenue in England for 2024/25, published on 19 November 2025, found that the 295 councils that had reported to the government by then took £2.163 billion from on-street and off-street parking and spent £1.07 billion, leaving a surplus of £1.094 billion. The largest single surplus was Westminster’s, at £90.6 million, up 19.3 percent from £75.9 million a year earlier.

Leicestershire’s on-street surplus of £81,058 on the council’s stated figure is a tiny share of that total, and a county council with a deficit one year and a modest surplus the next is a different business from a London borough. What the two datasets share is the direction: the service is paying for itself, and the money earned from drivers does not stand still.

The council says what happens to any surplus. The 2025/26 account states that any surplus will fund “improvements to parking and general traffic management in the County”. The 2024/25 account says all money generated is used to run the service.

Can You Avoid a Leicestershire Parking Penalty?

With 27,509 notices issued in a year, roughly 75 a day on the county’s roads (our calculation), a penalty is a real prospect for anyone who parks on street. These are the steps that cost the least and protect the most.

Read the notice for the reduced amount and the deadline. Government guidance says that in some cases the fine is reduced if you pay within 14 days. The notice itself states whether that applies and the date it runs out. Paying late costs more: if a penalty charge notice is not paid within 28 days, a charge certificate follows and you then have 14 days to pay the original fine plus 50 percent.

Challenge before you pay if you think it is wrong. A challenge goes to the council first. If the council rejects it, a driver can take the case to an independent adjudicator. The 2025/26 account shows 27,509 notices produced £900,127, an average of £32.72 each, which is an average across every notice, including any that were cancelled, reduced or left unpaid. Read the notice first for how the council treats a challenge against the reduced rate.

Keep evidence on the day. Photograph the signs and road markings next to your car, the bay, your windscreen permit or ticket, and any faded lines. Keep the receipt or confirmation for pay-by-phone sessions and note the time. Errors in the notice itself, such as the wrong time, place or vehicle, are the usual grounds for a successful challenge.

Residents should check their permit renewal. Resident parking income rose 10.7 percent to £240,407 in 2025/26, so permit schemes are bringing in more money. A lapsed permit leaves you parked in a restricted bay without cover, and the account lists a camera car among its enforcement costs.

Ask for the numbers behind your own area. The account says nothing about how many notices were cancelled, how many went unpaid or which streets generate the most. Those figures can be requested from the council under the Freedom of Information Act, and they would show whether a hotspot near you reflects bad signage or real misuse.

The accounts do not show any change to the price of a penalty in Leicestershire. They show more notices, a slightly lower income per notice and an enforcement operation that cost £7,934 less to run, which together turned a £50,898 loss into a profit on the council’s own figures.

Sources

• Leicestershire County Council: 2025-26 On Street Parking Account information (financial year 2025/26, file published August 2026)
• Leicestershire County Council: 2024-25 On Street Parking Account (financial year 2024/25, file published July 2025)
• RAC Foundation: Council parking revenue in England 2024-25 (published 19 November 2025)