More than £2.5million worth of parking fines went uncollected in the borough last year, nearly half of all charges issued.

Enfield Council collected £3.5million from penalty charge notices – fines given out by traffic wardens for parking violations – but 41 per cent of the fines from the 86,864 tickets issued in 2011/12 went unpaid.

There was a four per cent drop in collection rates from the year before, and the collection rate is far lower than the 90-95 per cent targets the council sets itself for other money owed like rent, business rates and council tax.

The figures are revealed in Enfield’s income collection report, which is set to go before the council’s cabinet this evening.

The outstanding amount of £2,501,732 in unpaid fines is equivalent to more than two per cent of the council’s income from council tax.

Enfield’s controversial Sunday parking charges, introduced in Enfield Town in January, are estimated to make just £100,000 for the council, leading to one councillor to suggest that it would be more sensible to focus on cracking down on unpaid fines instead.

Councillor Terry Neville, Conservative environment spokesman, told the Enfield Independent: “Whilst I can accept that there will always be some that will be uncollected, I cannot believe that most of these are appeals cases or people taking legal action.

“It makes you think that if they got their collection up to scratch then they wouldn’t need to introduce Sunday parking charges at all – it’s scandalous really.”

The Enfield Independent is waiting for a response from Enfield Council.