More than 350,000 parking tickets were issued in Westminster in the first 10 months of last year.

The top worst offending streets were Wardour Street in Soho, where 5,143 vehicles were fined, Queensway in Bayswater had 4,445 tickets issued and 3,331 tickets in Great Marlborough Street, Soho.

A Freedom of Information request revealed that 357,000 tickets were issued between January and October last year - around 1,175 per day. The top three streets generated at least £500,000 of fines.

Busy A-roads such as Baker Street (3,244) and Charing Cross Road (2,879) were also in the top 10. Outside the West End, motorists were caught out in South Wharf Road (2,834), outside St Mary’s Hospital, and Cleveland Terrace (2,904), both close to Paddington station.

Leith Penny, Westminster’s strategic director of city management, said the large number of tickets issued was down to the fact nearly 600,000 vehicles enter central London each day, while the council only provides 41,000 on-street parking spaces.

“The whole aim of any parking policy, anywhere, is to keep traffic moving while ensuring that the parking needs of residents, businesses and visitors are balanced,” he said. “It is inevitable that where there are most cars, there is most demand for parking and the West End is an extremely busy part of a very busy city.”

A spokesman for Westminster Council said that the majority of revenue from parking tickets covers the cost of parking enforcement and any left over is used, by law, on transport-related projects.

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