MOTORISTS were issued with 27,666 parking tickets in the York area during the year up to April 2003, it was revealed today.

The figure was up by more than 2,000 on the 25,525 doled out in the previous year on behalf of City of York Council.

At the same time, the number of appeals made to the National Parking Adjudication Service against York parking tickets trebled to 72.

Of these appeals, 23 were successful.

In a league table of the tickets issued by the 68 local authorities which have joined the NPAS scheme, York came 28th.

Its figure of 27,666 was well ahead of Harrogate, which came 42nd after handing out 14,970 tickets, and just behind Canterbury, which gave out 27,881.

York's figure was dwarfed by the 164,055 tickets issued in Birmingham, the highest in the country outside London.

Nationally, the number of tickets issued increased by 50 per cent, coming to 2,156,813, compared to 1,436,530 the previous year.

A NPAS spokeswoman said that all local authorities which had decriminalised parking had to join the service.

She said an independent adjudicator considered all the points raised in an appeal before deciding whether to uphold it or to allow the fine to stand.

The latest figures relate to a period before the recent introduction by City of York Council of a host of new parking restrictions - for example, double yellow lines banning on-street parking 24 hours a day across the city centre. These restrictions may have an affect on future figures from the NPAS.

Updated: 10:41 Monday, June 21, 2004