PARKING attendants in the Medway Towns hand out almost twice as many tickets as any others in the county, it has been revealed.

Medway Council’s team of 19 attendants issued an average of 2,554 tickets each last year. That's worth at least £1.5 million to the council in fines. Only Canterbury, with between 22 and 25 attendants during the course of the year, is similar to the size of Medway’s parking team.

But the number of penalty notices issued by each attendant in the tourist city of Canterbury is half that of Medway.

A Medway Council spokesman said attendants were not on commission nor performance-related pay. Instead, more tickets were issued because there were more parking offences in the area than in other towns and cities.

The figures were disclosed in a parking enforcement report given to Canterbury City Council by its development and planning scrutiny committee.

Cllr Janice Bamber, Medway portfolio holder for key service delivery, said motorists in Canterbury were probably more law-abiding than those in the Towns.

She added: "Medway drivers seem to flout parking laws. We seem to have a greater problem than other towns.”