Almost 8.6 million tickets could be issued during the financial year by “out of control juggernaut” parking firms, according to analysis by the RAC Foundation.

If projections are accurate, drivers will face a 26% increase on the total of 6.8 million fines in 2018/19.

Government data indicates that tickets are being issued at a rate of at least one every four seconds.

Steve Gooding, director of the RAC Foundation, said: “Whatever the outcome of the general election it must be a priority for our new government to get a grip, quickly, of this.”

“The volume of tickets being issued is now four and a half times what it was when clamping was outlawed back in 2012 and an astonishing 32 times more than it was in 2006, which is the first year for which the DVLA publishes data for.

Firms can charge drivers up to £100 for alleged infringements in private car parks.

Parking companies request records from the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) at a cost of £2.50. The DVLA says it does not make any money from the process and its charges are purely to recover costs for providing the information.

In March this year a successful RAC campaign to make it easier for motorists to challenge unfair parking fines and more difficult for parking firms to request DVLA records, pushed legislation to receive Royal Assent.

Passing in March, the bill has triggered the Government’s recent announcement to enforce a 10-minute grace period in private car parks.

Local Government Secretary Robert Jenrick said: “The new code will restore common sense to the way parking fines are handed out, encourage people back onto our high-streets and crack-down on dodgy operators who use aggressive tactics to harass drivers.”

Private parking tickets, often called Parking Charge Notices, differ from council-issued Penalty Charge Notices and aren’t technically backed up by law.

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