Labour has hit back at suggestions its councils rake in more from parking charges than their Tory-run counterparts.
Its figures, collected from hundreds of councils, suggest households in Labour-run areas pay £29.69 on average each year compared to almost £43 in Conservative boroughs.
Labour was responding after Communities Secretary Eric Pickles criticised councils over parking revenues describing them as a “shopping tax” hitting high streets.
The row comes as Leeds City Council considers changes to parking in the city including charging on Sundays and beyond 6pm.
Leeds Central MP Hilary Benn, the Shadow Local Government Secretary, said: “This survey shows that Tory councils are imposing much higher charges when families up and down the country are seeing their incomes squeezed.
“It’s unfair, it’s damaging local high streets and small businesses, and we hope Eric Pickles, the Tory Secretary of State for Local Government, will tell his councils to stop behaving in this way.”
Labour gathered the figures from 226 councils across the country through a series of Freedom of Information Requests.
The average figure for the amount paid by households in parking charges was £37.49, with those under Liberal Democrat control bringing in £39.08 and hung councils £34.41.
Of the councils which responded, 116 were Tory, 69 Labour and seven Lib Dem.
Leeds City Council is currently running a public consultation on the way car parking should be managed in the future.
Plans include the closure of large numbers of commuter spaces to the south of the city centre as park and ride schemes are opened.
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