Council makes £4m on parking

PARKING charges and fines made a £4 million profit for Coventry City Council last year.

The figure refers to the 2015/16 financial year and covers the money made from local authority car park charges and parking fines after deducting running costs.

According to the RAC Foundation, Coventry City Council generated £3,937,000 from parking charges in the 12 months from April 2015.

It marked a £352,000 increase in the council’s income on the previous year and meant it ranked 49th in terms of money made from parking out of 353 local authorities.

In contrast, North Warwickshire Borough Coun- cil lost money on its parking activities – recording a £59,000 shortfall in the 2015/16 financial year.

It was the fifth successive year the authority had lost money from parking and it was the only council in Warwickshire to do so.

Warwick District Council topped the county table, with an income of £1.287 million.

It was followed by Nuneaton and Bedworth Borough Council, which generated £1.091 million and Stratford District Council, which made £1.006 million. Rugby Borough Council brought in just £159,000.

Steve Gooding, director of the RAC Foundation, said: “These numbers might seem eye-wateringly large, but in part they reflect the growing competition for space in many of our towns and cities. In 1995 there were only 21.4 million cars on Britain’s roads, today there are 30.7 million.

“Parking charges are one of the tools councils use to keep traffic moving whilst also allowing people reasonable and affordable access to highstreet shops and other facilities.

“The good news is that any profit generated by councils from on-street parking must by law be spent on transportrelated activities and, as every motorist knows, there’s no shortage of work that needs doing.”

Nationally, Westminster was the council to make the most money - raking in £55.9 million. North Yorkshire recorded the biggest loss – £1.014 million.