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Greedy UK councils rake in £565m from parking charges

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Author: | Updated: 01 Aug 2013 12:02

Parking charges are generating huge profits for the vast majority of UK councils, according to the RAC Foundation.

Britain’s 359 local authorities collected £565m from their on and off street parking operations in 2011-12, £54m more than in 2010-11.

Only 52 (14%) of the 359 councils operated parking at a loss.

Eight of the ten biggest earning councils were London-based, with Westminster topping the table with a £41.6m current account surplus before capital charges, a 20% increase since 2009.

Only Brighton & Hove and Cornwall unitary authority were the two non-London councils to appear in the top ten, at sixth and eighth respectively.

"Parking charges are a nice little earner" - Photo: Dan Slee

“Nice little earner”

The news comes after a judge declared that cash-strapped Barnet Council had acted illegally when it upped the cost of residents' parking permits by up to 300% to raise general revenue.

By law, money raised from parking after covering the admin and implementation costs has to be pumped back into transport purposes like dealing with pot holes and improving road management or public transport.

Professor Stephen Glaister, Director of the RAC Foundation, said: “For many local authorities, parking charges are a nice little earner, especially in the Capital.

“Hundreds of millions of pounds are being contributed annually to council coffers through parking charges and the drivers who are paying them have a reasonable expectation to see the cash spent on improving the roads.

“In fact it is enshrined in law – as underlined by the Barnet case last week – that profits gained from on street charges and penalties must be ploughed back into a very limited number of things including maintaining the roads.”

Council’s current account surplus before capital charges

  Council 2011/12 2010/11 2009/10 Change from 2009 to 2011
1 Westminster £41.6m £38.2m £34.6m 20%
2 Kensington & Chelsea £28.1m £21.1m £21.8m 29%
3 Camden £25m £21.1m £10.5m 139%
4 Hammersmith & Fulham £19.5m £16.6m £14.1m 39%
5 Wandsworth £16.1m £14.4m £12.2m 32%
6 Brighton & Hove £14.4m £12.7m £11.7m 23%
7 Islington £10.9m £5.6m £5m 118%
8 Cornwall £7.9m £8.2m £10.2m 22%
9 Newham £7.3n £3.9m £1.8m 306%
10 Hounslow £7.3m £6m £5.1m 43%

Source: RAC Foundation

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