Nearly 1,200 hit with a parking ticket on the same Northampton town centre road in one year

Former UKIP councillor for Kingsthorpe, Michael Brown, who is not standing in today's county council elections, raised the issue of parking in Guildhall Road back in 2015.

He said the confusing signs on the freshly-paved cultural quarter route were leading to too many drivers receiving parking tickets.

Though the signage has been made slightly clearer since then - the extraordinarily high number of tickets being issued there has not gone down.

Wardens dished out 1,192 there between April 2016 and April 2017 - which could have earned the county council a potential £83,440 if all of those fined did not pay within 14 days.

Mr Brown said the only solution on the road is to place yellow lines in Guildhall Road again.

He said: "They have those modern-styled signs up there, but no one turning down there understands them

"We need to think about putting yellow lines on there, that way people know for sure they can't park there.

"We can't have the premium location in the town centre that people come to visit getting 1,000 plus tickets a year.

"That tells me there is something really wrong."

Guildhall Road, which runs alongside the Royal and Derngate theatre was resurfaced in 2014 to make it more visually appealing

Part of the issue with the parking on Guildhall Road is that crazy paving bays are not easily distinguishable from the pavement, where Mr Brown believes many unwary victims of fines were parked.

But the county council says it is not planning to review parking there anytime soon.

Northamptonshire County Council spokesman said: “Since the introduction of the Guildhall Public Realm in autumn 2014, bay markings have been made clearer and in the past six months we have updated all pay and display signs in Guildhall Road.

“There are additional pay and display bays for blue badge holders to park without restriction at the bottom end of Guildhall Road, and there are a number of car parks nearby which give motorists alternative options.

“In Guildhall Road, the demands for parking and loading within the space available have been carefully balanced and therefore there are currently no plans to review the current restrictions.”