Parking profits show no sign of falling off

Surplus in spite of absence of traffic wardens

Stirling Council continues to make a healthy surplus from parking charges even though traffic wardens have been absent from city streets for some time.

Latest figures show the authority in the 12 months from April 2015 made £160,000 profit from parking compared with £140,000 the previous financial year.

However, meter and penalty income from off- and on-street parking plunged 17 per cent from £2.02million in 2014-15 to £1.67m during the following 12-month period.

Expenditure by Stirling Council on parking fell 20 per cent from £1.88m in 2014-15 to £1.51m in 2015-16.

The data obtained by the RAC Foundation shows Stirling and 14 other Scottish councils raked in almost £41m in surpluses in 2015-16, up 12 per cent on the previous financial year.

Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen contributed 87 per cent of that total.

The figures includes meter and penalty income for on- and off-street parking but not money received by private parking companies.

Clackmannanshire Council recorded an £80,000 deficit for 2015/16, compared with a £100,000 loss in 2014/15.

Police Scotland announced in 2013 that they no longer wanted to pay for traffic wardens and intended to shift responsibility for on-street parking enforcement to councils.

It was agreed a year later that police would continue to provide the service while Stirling Council secured agreement for the legislation needed to take on the service permanently.

Police have continued ticketing motorists in problem areas, such as Stirling city centre, but the area’s two remaining traffic wardens left their jobs in March of last year.

The council expect to begin on-street parking enforcement in May after months of attempting to secure the approvals they need to take on the job.

Over the past two weeks, signs warning motorists that council wardens would soon begin patrolling the streets have been going up across the area.

Stirling Council said any surplus from parking charges is reinvested back in to staffing and other resources.

A council spokesperson added: “Almost all Scottish councils make charges for parking on and off street in their areas under legislative powers available to them. Charging for car parking is an important means of controlling the flow of traffic in our city and towns and the income raised from car parking charges is used to fund the staffing and other resources necessary for that important function.

“In recent years we applied either no increase or a small inflationary increase to charges, and the surplus generated is used to fund improvements to car parks and the roads network.”

Steve Gooding, director of the RAC Foundation, said: “Providing and managing the space for us to park our cars is not a cost-free activity for councils, but controlling those costs is clearly important.

“By keeping the bills down and seeing a rise in parking income there has been a significant increase in the annual surplus, or profit, councils are making from parking activities. The good news is that this money must be reinvested in transport services including, Scottish drivers will expect, maintaining the road network.

“Amongst the numbers in our report, Scottish motorists will note that a fifth of parking income comes from the near half a million penalty charge notices issued.”

Edinburgh City Council made the largest profit, making £19.36m, Glasgow City Council was a distant second with £12.58m. Aberdeen City Council were third with £4.89m.