A STAGGERING £1.16 million has been raised in revenue from parking tickets in Worcester over the last two years – and the city is about to recruit more traffic wardens.

Civil enforcement officers, as they are known, have been handing out about 60 tickets a day on vehicles parked illegally across the city.

Depending on the infringement and how quickly a vehicle owner pays up, fines can range from £25 to £70.

In the last two years, a total of 41,664 penalty charge notices have been issued – 20,276 in 2010 and 21,388 in 2011 – by 14 civil enforcement officers, but bosses are about to bolster the team by two and give all of them powers to tackle other issues such as littering, dog fouling and abandoned vehicles. Councillor Marc Bayliss, cabinet member for economic prosperity, said: “This will bring the team up to full strength so we can do more enforcement work across the city – not just in the centre, but in the outer-lying areas too.

“We know there are areas outside of the city centre we need to get to but, obviously, civil enforcement officers need to keep the city centre moving otherwise that has a severe impact on the local economy.

"We have to do that, but we also need to respond to the needs of the community as well.

“It’s not about generating cash or issuing tickets but trying to educate people to make sure they comply with the rules that are good for all of us.”

Coun Bayliss, Conservative, denied parking charges are being used as a cash cow because all funds have to be ploughed back into transport-related schemes such as improving car parks and paying for enforcement activity.

As a result, money generated could be put towards implementing residential parking schemes, he said.

Because Worcester City Council carries out the work on public highways on behalf of Worcestershire County Council, as well as inside its own car parks, money generated from parking fines is split between the two.

That split was 70/30 in favour of the county until the end of March last year, but that has since changed to a 60:40 ratio.

As a result, the city received £171,466 compared with £400,087 for the county in 2010.

The city’s income was boosted, as a result of the contract renegotiation and an increase in the number of tickets issued, to £222,543 last year while the county got £372,700.