In 2016 I had an occasion to attend a meeting of the ARC at the Coventry Transport Museum. The satnav took me to the front entrance where of course there is nowhere to park. So I drove around trying to find some place to park nearby, and in doing so unwittingly, infringed a local byelaw by driving along a bus only street not just once, but twice in my efforts to find a car park. I was consequently fined £120 , but paying early this was reduced to a payment of £60.
Then in 2017, I had to attend another ARC meeting at the same venue and again although I was conscious not drive down a bus only street whilst finding a car park, I managed to drive down another such street and got fined again.
So I thought, I wonder how many other visitors to the City Centre have fallen foul of this particular byelaw, so I wrote to my MP, explaining what happened to me and asked him to request a Freedom of Information from The Council on how many motorists had been caught out by these restrictions.
I list below the figures they eventually came up with.
2014………4072 fines
2015………9705 fines
2016…….. 23,757 fines
2017………32,813 fines
So next time you have occasion to drive into Coventry City Centre, beware, particularly if you’re not a native!
Tim Booth