A list of the UK places where motorists are most likely to get handed a parking fine has been released… and it’s grim reading for Mancs.
That’s because our city has, unfortunately, claimed the top spot.
In recent months, Manchester has found itself either at the top of, or ranking amongst, a couple of not-so-desirable lists, including being home to the ‘nosiest’ neighbours, the city with the lowest rate of fixed reported potholes, and, probably the worst of them all, one of the UK’s ‘chlamydia capitals’.
And now it seems we’ve done it again – but this time around, it’s drivers who need to take note and keep an eye on where they leave their vehicles.
Manchester’s less-than-ideal new title as the UK’s number one parking fine hotspot comes after injury lawyer experts at Claims.co.uk recently carried out a study where they analysed Penalty Charge Notice (PCN) data from 2020 to 2021 in a bid to find out which towns, cities, and regions have been the hardest hit by motoring fines.
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Manchester motorists are the most likely to get a parking fine in the UK / Credit: PublicDomainPictures | IPTC (Ronald Hudson)
On top of this, they also looked at which UK areas residents have been the most successful at appealing these notices.
As mentioned, Manchester came in at number one on the top 10 list, with an eye-watering rate of 99,348 PCNs issued per 100,000 people – which is a whopping 901.33% higher than the national average of 9,922 notices per 100,000 people.
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Manchester saw the most penalty charge notices issued of any area in the UK, with 546,270 fines issued overall, and considering that the population of the area that the City of Manchester covers is only 549,853, that’s almost one penalty charge notice for every person.
Of those 546,270 fines, only 660 were appealed, and just 478 were successfully overturned following those appeals.
Brighton and Hove, Reading, Cambridgeshire, and Nottingham round out the top five.
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The top 10 parking fine hotspots in the UK
Manchester
Brighton & Hove
Reading
Cambridgeshire
Nottingham
Bristol
Cardiff
Slough
Portsmouth
Derby
The city has been named the UK’s top PCN hotspot / Credit: Ocean Outdoor
Elsewhere on the list, Bristol has secured sixth place, with the Welsh capital of Cardiff trailing not so far behind, followed by Slough and Portsmouth, and the midlands city region of Derby rounding out the top 10 rankings.
Across each area of the UK, the average number of PCNs issued over the period worked out to be 26,512 – which is a total of 9,922 per 100,000 people.
On the other end of the spectrum, Hyndburn in Lancashire was revealed as the UK area that’s the least likely to be hit with a PCN, seeing only a minuscule 46 fines issued between 2020 and 2021, which works out to a rate of just 56 fines per 100,000 people.
Bernardo Silva shares hilarious X-rated clash with John Stones before they were teammates
Danny Jones
This long weekend not only saw Man City manager and sporting legend Pep Guardiola bid goodbye to the club after a decade, but so did John Stones and Bernardo Silva, and the latter shared a hilarious story about an encounter before their bromance in blue.
Can’t lie, this one nearly made us spit out our tea when we first watched it…
Following the trio’s respective final games, this late May bank holiday Monday saw yet another City parade pass through Manchester, and as the party continued over at the Etihad Campus and Co-op Live for the afterparty, the boys got up on stage to say some parting words.
In Silva’s case, he chose to share, rather fittingly, some very choice words indeed, as he talked about his time playing against Stones when he was still in France.
From ‘little soft c**t’ to brothers lifting trebles together… football heritage.
Safe to say no one was expecting that particular expletive to come out of his mouth – we reckon not even most of the squad themselves.
During the Yorkshireman‘s first season at Manchester City, he came up against the creative midfielder in the Champions League when he was still playing at Ligue 1 side AS Monaco.
As you can see in the clip above, while it wasn’t the friendliest of exchanges back then, they soon buried the hatchet and chalked it off as nothing more than football.
Both fierce competitors in their own right, they look to be plenty soft with each other off the pitch ever since they became teammates.
So much so, in fact, that the duo ended up being the face of a pop-up Man City pub earlier this month, recreating the famous photo of the Gallagher brothers wearing the 1993/94 kits.
Credit: Manchester City FC (publicity pictures)
It’s plain to see in the clip how much love there is between the two, all these years later, and the story itself got a rapturous reaction from their peers and the crowd alike.
Silva has plenty of fans across Europe, both as a player and purely as a character; you only have to look at how Jack Grealish often reiterates his love for the Portuguese playmaker as a person and Premier League character, or even how pundits aligned with rival clubs like Gary Neville waxes lyrical about him.
And then we come to Pep himself.
Guardiola was rightfully given a fantastic guard of honour at the stadium itself on Sunday, with his speech making for an emotional moment for all those in the stands and watching at home, and City supporters at the parade made sure to give him a proper send-off.
Featured Images — Manchester City FC/CITY+ (screenshot via YouTube)
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66% of Brits consider Manchester to be the second city not Birmingham
Emily Sergeant
A new survey has revealed that more than half of Brits now consider Manchester to be the second city, rather than Birmingham.
At this point, the debate over where should hold the unofficial title of ‘Britain’s second city’ has raged for almost as long as London has been the capital… but now, in a bid to get to the bottom of the issue, a new YouGov study of more than 55,000 Brits investigates which urban areas the public feel have the strongest claim to holding the title.
Overall, it was revealed that 66% of Brits believe Manchester has a ‘strong case’ for being considered Britain’s second city, compared to 48% for Birmingham, and 49% for Edinburgh
When picking the city they most consider to be Britain’s second city, the public are, however, divided as 34% say it’s Manchester while 30% opt for Birmingham.
66% of Brits consider Manchester to be the second city not Birmingham / Credit: Chris Curry | Josh Taylor (via Unsplash)
As you can probably imagine, the answer to this age-old question varies significantly depending on where you are in the country.
Belief that Birmingham is Britain’s second city is concentrated in and around the West Midlands, whereas Manchester’s claim likewise finds its strongest support on its home patch (77% in Greater Manchester), though this does not extend to every part of the North West, with the people of Merseyside being more likely to consider Liverpool (34%) the second city than Manchester (27%).
Perhaps key to explaining why having a population roughly twice the size of Manchester’s doesn’t immediately settle the 'second city' debate in Birmingham’s favour is that just 14% of Britons consider population size to be the most important factor in determining a second city… pic.twitter.com/ThtAgJSKqq
Despite all this though, Manchester being considered the second city is the most common view across a ‘reasonably wide’ spread of England, YouGov found.
Beyond geographical differences, there’s also seen to be a small generational divide over the title too.
Among younger Brits, Manchester is the clear favourite, with 42% of 18-24 year olds seeing it as Britain’s second city, while Birmingham edges out Manchester for the silver city medal among over-65s by a margin of 35% to 29%.
Emily Sergeant -
12th February 2024 
