A PARKING ticket is handed out every 30 seconds across Greater Manchester.

Almost 400,000 tickets were dished out in one year - the equivalent of more than a 1,000 a day and two every minute, according to latest figures.

And hundreds of them were slapped on in error.

More than 1,000 people appealed to the National Parking Adjudication Service against fines served by traffic wardens across Greater Manchester, after their challenge was thrown out by the council involved.

An average of 73 per cent of the appeals were successful across the councils - excluding Tameside, which was not subject to NPAS adjudication and was unable to provide figures.

The 1,054 appeals were lodged against tickets issued in 2006. Scores of other appeals will have been settled in-house by town hall parking officers.

In the 12 months, wardens gave out 390,596 penalty charge notices for offences such as parking on double yellow lines or overstaying in a pay and display spot. Of those, 132,723 were issued in Manchester and 350 went to the adjudicator, with 67 per cent successfully appealed. More than 2,000 vehicles were towed away in the city.

Rochdale's wardens were most accurate, with only 58 per cent of drivers winning appeals.

Trafford fared worse, with 91 out of 37,645 tickets going before NPAS - and a 95 per cent success rate for drivers. More than three-quarters of the appeals were uncontested by council parking chiefs, who put the poor figures down to a change in `enforcement contractors'.

A Trafford council spokesman said there had been some `teething problems'.

In Stockport, where the council has carried out its own enforcement since 2005, only two tickets out of 28, 982 were taken to the adjudicator. Both were a success.

The council's Jim McMahon said: "Our enforcement officers do not have targets or quotas to meet. We do not take a soft approach to illegal parking, but we do carefully consider any appeals."

Caroline Shepherd, chief adjudicator for NPAS - which this week changed its name to the Traffic Penalty Tribunal - said many appeal wins were due to ticket processing errors and vehicle ownership disputes.