Who is Herefordshire's most persistent parking offender?

Amounting almost to one ticket for every 10 days during 2022, the 35 tickets given to the UK-registered Mercedes Vito driver drew fines of £1,050.

These were mostly resulted from violations in Hereford’s Merton Meadow car park, according to a Freedom of Information request to Herefordshire Council, which manages most of the county’s car parks.

The parking fines were apparently paid promptly, as they work out at £30 each. The council did not reveal the identity of the persistent parking offender.

RELATED STORIES:

• Car parking charges in Hereford going up – new costs
• The Herefordshire street that raises the most parking fines
• Couple stumped by 'time-travelling' Hereford car park ticket

In production since 1996, the Vito comes in van and people-carrier formats, making it unclear whether the vehicle in question was in commercial use.

Merton Meadow, where the basic charge is £1 an hour, will not be among the city’s car parks which will see increased parking charges from next week.

Herefordshire Council has said “inflationary increases” will raise parking charges rise by 20p per hour in city-centre car parks, but those further out such as Merton Meadow are excused the rises to make them “more cost-effective”, the council said.

Earlier this year, Herefordshire Council revealed that the street in the county from which it raises the most in parking fines is the short, one-way Union Street in the city centre, which generated £47,400 from 1,341 individual fines in the last financial year.