Hounslow Council has written off almost £2.7m of unpaid parking fines in its 2021/22 financial accounts, leading opposition Councillors to rebuke the Cabinet for its fiscal management.

A combined sum of £2,695,393 owed to the Council by more than 15,700 people who received parking penalty charges in Hounslow will go uncollected.

The parking fine write offs, disclosed in the Budget Outturn Report ahead of the recently held July Cabinet Meeting, form the vast majority of bad debt in the borough totalling £3.2m.

Cllr. John Todd, who represents Chiswick Homefields ward for the Conservatives, told BrentfordTW8 that he has requested an explanation from Hounslow's Head of Parking Services and will raise the issue with the Director of Finance. He said: "Most concerning that the cabinet accepting this write off without a challenge or explanation."

Councillor Salman Shaheen, Hounslow's Cabinet Member for Parking, Parks and Leisure, responded: "The Council makes every effort to recover absolutely all debt owed, including exhausting all legal remedies available.

"This sum of money represents debts in regard to parking penalty charges, some of which dates back nearly ten years, where it has proved impossible, after multiple attempts, to trace or recover the money from the debtors. We have not written off any parking debts for some time, hence the large amount."

Follow this link and click Agenda Reports Pack to access the accounts submitted.