English Councils made a record “profit” of £594m last year, according to the RAC Foundation. Parking income now represents half of all gross income received by councils from transport activities.
London boroughs dominate the parking penalty table. Westminster, for example, made £25.3m last year. Outside London, Manchester was the only council in the top 20. It made £5.6m from penalty income. This is up by nearly half again since 2009/10. Manchester also increased its overall surplus by £3.8m.
40% of parking income comes from London, even though Londoners own only 10% of UK cars.
Of the top 20 parking income generators, most were London boroughs. Top of the league were Westminster, Kensington & Chelsea and Camden, with massive parking incomes of £80m, £42.8m and £39.3m respectively.
Outside London, the highest incomes from parking were Brighton & Hove, Birmingham and Cornwall, with £23.6m, £18.7m and £14.0m respectively.
Newcastle, Manchester and Leeds weren’t far behind, with £13.9m, £13.7m and £13.0m each. You can view the full RAC Foundation study results here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-25497675
Earlier this year, the government announced plans to stop councils making a profit from parking. Communities Secretary Eric Pickles said cameras used to catch people parking illegally could be banned and unnecessary yellow lines could be reviewed. We shall wait and see.
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