BAILIFFS are set to hunt down close to 700 motorists who have failed to cough up parking fines since last October, The Evening Star can reveal.A total of 691 motorists, around 350 living in Ipswich, will be tracked down in the coming weeks once Ipswich Borough Council has finalised contracts with money retrieval firms.

BAILIFFS are set to hunt down close to 700 motorists who have failed to cough up parking fines since last October, The Evening Star can reveal.

A total of 691 motorists, around 350 living in Ipswich, will be tracked down in the coming weeks once Ipswich Borough Council has finalised contracts with money retrieval firms.

The huge blitz has come about because arrangements for final collection action has taken time to sort out since the council took over parking enforcement duties from police in October.

Parking services manager Richard Walker said: “The first two or three months worth of cases are being dealt with in one big batch.

“We have got the bailiffs in place and are just waiting on the contracts.

“The people involved are either naughty offenders or those who think if they don't pay the whole process will go away.”

Mr Walker said around half the motorists that will have their details passed on to bailiffs come from the Ipswich area with the remainder coming from surrounding towns and across the country.

Three separate bailiff firms are set to be awarded collection contracts.

One firm will deal with collections in the Ipswich area with the other two splitting the remaining workload alphabetically based on the surnames of debtors.

Mr Walker said that once the initial collections were out the way the council expects to hand on the details of around 300 non-payers a month to bailiffs.

This represents around 20 per cent of the average 1,500 people a month who receive parking tickets in Ipswich.

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The 691 motorists being targeted in the first wave of collections owe a combined total of at least £65,000.

An immediate payment discount is offered to motorists caught foul of parking regulations. The fine can be settled with a payment of £30 within 14 days of the ticket being issued.

If the payment is made after the 14-day discount period a full charge of £60 is applicable.

If the payment is not made or no response is made to reminders, then the charge will increase to £90.

The £90 charge goes up to £95 once the penalty is registered as a debt at the county court.

If bailiffs then become involved their charges can see the total debt inflate to hundreds of pounds.