The TikToker taking on Liverpool Council over parking fines

Dear readers — welcome to your Monday briefing. We’re deep into autumn now and the weather’s bearing that out. Another Merseyside derby has been and gone, with Liverpool coming out on top – and Everton can count themselves unlucky after some unusual refereeing decisions... 

But whether you’re feeling relieved or aggrieved, we’ve got some great reading material for you.

Catch up and coming up:

• Over the weekend, Laurence published a brilliantly nostalgic piece on the soap Brookside. It was lovely to see some of you reminiscing in the comments: “This was one of my favourite soaps in the 90s,” wrote Helene. “The body under the patio image has entered the national lingua franca,” remarked Hugh. Get involved in the discussion here.
• Coming up this week, we have another Answers in The Post; this time digging into the impact of the new Everton stadium on local businesses. 
• We also have a brilliant five-year-long investigation by powerhouse Matt O’Donoghue scheduled for this weekend (if all things go to plan, ahem).

The big story: The TikToker taking on Liverpool Council over parking fines

Top line: TikTok star Zoë Bread found herself hit by a fine after parking in her usual Bixteth Street spot after 6pm. This fired the starting pistol on a feud with Liverpool City Council (LCC), whom the influencer claims did not correctly signpost the recent changes to free city centre parking. 

In the weeks since, Zoë has issued FOIs (Freedom of information requests), interviewed traffic wardens and created viral videos to get her parking ticket rescinded. In doing so she uncovered some startling information, including that the council has already made at least £81,875 since changing parking rules, and maybe as much as twice that.

Context: Until June this year, drivers had to pay to park in Liverpool city centre between 8am to 6pm, meaning that parking after 6pm was free. But the council extended the CPZ (controlled parking zone) hours, and now you have to pay from 7am until 11pm. 

This caused a great deal of controversy at the time. When the public were consulted on the issue, almost 90% of respondents said they were against the change. Residents raised concerns about the night-time economy – fears echoed by performers and promoters. But the council went ahead, with leader Liam Robinson telling the Echo that while the changes would not be “universally popular”, the increase was “proportionate” for a city the size of Liverpool. The council were also quick to point out that the move was not done to raise funds, but to combat “anti-social car parking”.

A challenger appears: Last month, 20-year-old Zoë Bread found herself slapped with a penalty charge notice. On 19th August, she posted her first of four TikTok videos on the matter. In her own words: “I parked on a road I’ve parked on many-a-time at about 8pm. I didn’t buy a ticket as the rules have always been that it’s free after six, like is normal in a city.”

(As this contradicts Robinson’s claim that the new rules bring Liverpool into line with other metropolitan centres, we checked this with reporters at our sister titles. The Sheffield Tribune told us city centre parking after 8pm is free, but the council have been keen to encourage people to use paid car parks. Up in Glasgow, The Bell said free parking after 6pm was recently reduced to 10pm. In Manchester, on-street parking is free after 8pm. Inner zone charging hours in Birmingham are 8am to 7.30pm. To be fair to both sides, it’s a complex picture.)

In any case, over the course of her videos, Zoë details the measures she’s undertaken to get her ticket rescinded, including appeals, on-street interviews with traffic wardens, phone calls to the council, chats with night-time industry workers, and FOIs. Yes — Zoë has been enraged into a fit of journalism. 

Number crunching: For those like Laurence who don’t use TikTok or understand influencer culture, these FOIs nevertheless uncover some information highly relevant to the public interest:

• Between 1st August and 4th September, the council issued 3,275 penalty charge notices between 6pm and 11pm. 
• This works out at about 94 tickets per night during that five-hour window — or one ticket every three minutes. (A council spokesperson was keen to point out that this 3,275 figure pertained to Liverpool as a whole, and not just the city centre.)

Parking fines are filed under two categories: higher or lower. A higher offence, such as parking on a restricted street during prescribed hours, can land you a £70 fine (or £35 if you pay within 14 days). A lower offence, like overstaying your welcome in a parking bay, can cost £50 (or £25 if paid in 14 days). Some more maths for you:

• If all those fines are classed as “lower”, and paid at the reduced rate of £25, that means the council have made £81,875 in that month alone, or £163,750 if everyone fined pays £50. 
• Official government statistics detailing the percentage of drivers who pay a full parking fine versus a discounted rate are not publicly available, nor could we find any data specific to Liverpool. But many councils nationwide see a high take-up of the reduced rate — somewhere between 60% and 90%. 
• So, if Zoë’s claim that two thirds of those fined pay the reduced rate is correct, it would still leave LCC with a one-month revenue of £109,175. 

If that 94-ticket-per-night rate were to continue, LCC could expect to bring in between £857,750 and £1,715,500 a year — a great deal more than the quarter-million they stated before the CPZ hours were extended. 

The council responds: Of course, the last two paragraphs are all speculative, based upon extrapolation. You would expect more motorists to be “caught out” during the first month or so after a rule change, especially if — as Zoë claims — the amendments are not clearly signed. So we reached out to LCC about several issues raised in Zoë’s viral videos. 

Regarding discrepancies between CPZ hours ending for on-street parking (6pm), what’s stated on car park signage (7:30pm) and what the car parking machine says (11pm), “the information on the large car park sign shown in the video is correct,” a council spokesperson said.

“However, it appears that the information on the car park’s pay-and-display machine was incorrectly changed. This has now been amended and we are also checking all our other car parks to ensure that the information aligns.” The spokesperson apologises for any confusion and confirms LCC's plan to carry out further advertising to promote the changes.

The spokesperson also disputed the second-hand claim made in Zoë’s third video that LCC had hired fifty new traffic wardens. “No additional enforcement officers have been recruited for the introduction of the CPZ,” they said. However, “last year, we did start a campaign to recruit additional officers to the council, which is ongoing because residents have told us that inconsiderate parking is an issue they want us to tackle.” The spokesperson said this was a city-wide recruitment campaign not limited to the city centre. 

Regarding the potential effect on the city’s nightlife, the council said their aim to ensure the CPZ remains “fit for purpose” in light of the city’s “thriving night-time economy.” While the council touts maximum stay increases in support of the night-time hospitality sector, they also counter that the success of Liverpool’s nightlife has led to “congestion, illegal parking, and reduced access for residents and businesses”.

In response to the claim LCC might be bringing in as much as £1.7 million a year, the spokesperson declined to update LCC’s reasoning behind the CPZ extension or comment on any specific figures. The spokesperson concluded by saying LCC will consider any challenge to a Penalty Charge Notice through the usual process.

Bottom line: Judging by Zoë Bread’s previous online campaigns, including against LCC’s Mancunian equivalent, the TikToker is unlikely to be satisfied with this response. But regardless of the outcome of that feud, the amount of fines being issued and the revenue the change is bringing in may raise eyebrows across the city.

Disincentivising people from using cars is a key part of the Liverpool City Region’s net zero goals, not to mention an important component of encouraging active travel — two topics we’ve recently covered in Answers in The Post. But it’s important that any schemes are delivered fairly lest they are perceived as a punitive measure or “shadow tax”. 

What do you think? Let us know in the comments below.

Photo of the week

A rather majestic shot of seagulls being fed by one brave volunteer on Pier Head, taken by photographer George Griffin. 

Have a photo you want to submit to The Post? Email it to editor@livpost.co.uk for a chance to be featured in our Monday briefings.

Your Post briefing

How many attempts does it take to rid Merseyside Police of a “sexist and racist” officer? Three, apparently. Sergeant Craig Baker was able to keep his job back in 2022, despite his actions towards another officer being described in a conduct hearing as “old school racism”. An independent panel issued him a written warning instead of sacking him — something Merseyside Police challenged in 2023. Their appeal failed, and in February 2024 Baker was instead spared the sack again. However, new allegations have finally led to his resignation. Baker is alleged to have called a fellow female officer “a slag”, described another as “mad in the head, good in bed", asked for nude photographs from his colleagues and used an offensive slur towards former Chief Constable Serena Kennedy. As a result, Baker's name has been added to the College of Policing's barred list, prohibiting him from working in the police in future.

A new market is being trialled in Chinatown in the hopes it will help reinvigorate the area. The market will run for one day, on Sunday 28th September, and will offer a mix of street food, crafts, curated goods and community activities. If all goes well, Harry Doyle — Liverpool Council's cabinet member for health, wellbeing and culture — said “it could pave the way for a regular market that becomes a real fixture in the city's cultural calendar." It’s part of a wider strategy to improve Chinatown — including repurchasing land originally earmarked for the stalled Chinatown development — which has become increasingly rundown in recent years. 

And Southport’s town crier is in the running to be named one of the country’s finest. Kevin Ruane is an army veteran, who was also awarded an MBE for his services as a firefighter. After visiting a town in Yorkshire with a crier last year, he returned to Southport with the intention of bringing the tradition to life there. He lobbied Sefton councillors to create the post for him, and eventually they agreed the role could benefit the community and appointed Kevin in May.

Post Picks

🏚️On Friday, Make Hamilton in Birkenhead is hosting a day of ideas, panels and workshops about building new homes and reviving our high streets. Find out more here.

⚽Football fans, look alive! On Saturday, Get Your Kits Out Festival returns to Fabric Studios, with talks, market stalls, DJs, photo exhibitions and more. Grab a ticket here.

📽️Also on Saturday, Mossley Hill Parish Church is hosting a film screening of rare videos of historic Liverpool — spanning from the Victorian era to the 1980s. The event starts at 7pm — tickets here.

Recommended reads

📖Not to toot our own horn, but we were very pleased to have been included in this piece about the future of journalism in The Guardian over the weekend. While the article wrestled with the difficult media landscape we now find ourselves in, writer George Monbiot described us, and our sister publications in Glasgow and Manchester, as “innovative new outlets”.