DRIVERS in East Lancashire are paying hundreds of thousands of pounds in parking fines each year, new figures have revealed.

But the total amount made from parking tickets has dropped sharply in many areas, with bosses blaming the recession and disruption to shoppers caused by town-centre building works.

The Taxpayers’ Alliance, a pressure group that carried out the research, accused local authorities of having a “cash cow” after claiming a total of £328milion was handed over in fines nationwide in 2008/09.

Lancashire’s failed Parkwise scheme, which has now been ditched after making a loss, took more than £2.7million from drivers who had parked illegally in 2008/09 – a £500,000 drop from the previous year.

Traffic wardens in Blackburn and Darwen, which is independent from the rest of the county, handed out fines totalling £387,400 in 2008/09 – a steep drop from the previous year’s total of £607,013.

A council spokesman said the fall was down to the credit crunch and ongoing building work in Blackburn, which meant fewer people were driving into towns to go shopping.

Hundreds of spaces have also temporarily been lost pending completion of a multi-storey next to Waves pool.

And he said last year’s offer of free parking at Christmas time had also hit parking revenues hard.

Despite the drop, the Taxpayers’ Alliance claimed fines cost each adult in the borough £3.89 and £3.47 in the rest of Lancashire.

Its policy analyst Jennifer Dunn said: “Motorists are being treated like cash cows.”