WARNING - leaving your car in these streets could seriously damage your bank balance!

WARNING - leaving your car in these streets could seriously damage your bank balance!

We can today reveal Ipswich's five parking fine black spots - the roads where most penalty tickets are issued to disgruntled drivers.

The quintet, which accounted for a staggering 2,201 tickets in only 12 months, are:

- St Nicholas Street (609 fines)

- Old Foundry Road (502)

- St Peter's Street (482)

- Princes Street (309)

- Tower Ramparts (299)

In all, 52,521 motorists were handed tickets in Ipswich over the last four years - the equivalent to nearly half of the borough's population falling foul of parking regulations.

The figures can be published following a Freedom of Information request.

Using the smallest possible fine of �25 as a yardstick, the council - which has responsibility for ensuring parking laws are enforced - would have raked in �1,313,025, although the actual total is likely to be much higher.

Campaign groups today questioned whether councils see parking enforcement as a cash cow.

A spokesman for the Taxpayers' Alliance said: “I think people are increasingly concerned that the speed at which councils' income from parking fines is growing is a sign that they are using it as a revenue stream rather than some tool of justice.”

However, Liz Harsant, leader of Ipswich Borough Council, said her authority did not make any money out of issuing tickets and stressed the importance of parking responsibly.

She said: “I think the borough council has been too kind because officers have in the past warned people before sticking a penalty notice on a car.

“Enforcement is important and I feel strongly about it - if you break the law, what do you expect?

“I wouldn't want to see a regime of hatred towards motorists but, in my view, the borough council has acted responsibly on the issue.”

Parking tickets:

A DELAYED payment would see the price of a �25 ticket for transgressions such as car park overstays or having no parking ticket rise to �50 if it had not been paid within 14 days.

However, parking on double yellow lines or where a vehicle is deemed to be dangerous carries a �35 penalty which rises to �70 if the money is still outstanding after two weeks.

Ipswich has 15 civil enforcement officers responsible for ensuring people are not parked illegally.

Numbers of fines issued:

2006 - 14,409

2007 - 13,581

2008 - 13,685

2009 - 10,846 (up to August 1)