Leeds council collects £13 million in parking charges in one year

The council in Leeds earned more than £10 million over the past year in parking charges, figures show.
Date:25th June 2008.
Parking Charges increase in Leeds, pictured a motorist putting money into a meter on Park Square North, Leeds.Date:25th June 2008.
Parking Charges increase in Leeds, pictured a motorist putting money into a meter on Park Square North, Leeds.
Date:25th June 2008. Parking Charges increase in Leeds, pictured a motorist putting money into a meter on Park Square North, Leeds.

The AA says that parking charges are a “cash cow” for local authorities, and a stealth tax paid by drivers.

Parking services raised £13.5 million in revenue in 2017-18, according to Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government data.

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The majority of the income was raised from pay-and-display parking, residents’ permits and parking tickets.

Over the year, drivers paid the local authority £8.9 million in these on-street parking charges.

A quarter of the money raised from on-street parking came from drivers paying penalty charges for illegal parking.

The rest of the income came from council-run car parks.

Overall, drivers in Leeds paid an average of £17 per year in parking charges.

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Jack Cousens, AA head of roads policy, said: “At a time of squeezed local authority budgets, drivers are not surprised to see that they are the cash cow council bosses turn to.

“Some councils receive millions of pounds worth of parking charges every year and still continue to increase their prices.

“With the continued rise of online shopping, there may come a point where drivers decide to forgo the high street entirely.

“The cost of parking should cover the cost of providing the service, not become a stealth tax paid by a few thousand who regularly visit the town.”

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But the Local Government Association said that councils were “on the side of motorists and shoppers”.

Transport spokesman Coun Martin Tett said: “Councils have to strike a balance when setting parking policy, to make sure that there are spaces available for residents, high streets are kept vibrant and traffic is kept moving.”

He said that any income raised through parking charges is spent on running services, and that surplus is only spent on essential transport projects, such as “tackling our national £9 billion roads repair backlog”.

He added that councils were “leading the way in transforming the future potential of their town centres” and that parking was only a part of a successful solution.

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Over the year the council spent £5 million on running, policing and maintaining parking services, meaning that they made a profit of £8.4 million in 2017-18.

Total income from parking charges has risen slightly since 2016-17, when the council took £12.6 million in revenue.

The Federation of Small Businesses said that the rising cost of parking has “a major impact on high streets and town centres”.

FSB national chairman Mike Cherry said: “For small businesses to thrive, customers should not be deterred with high car parking charges which put the future of our high streets in jeopardy.”

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In England, a combined total of more than £1.6 billion was earned in parking revenue.

The top-earning council was Westminster, which took £88.8 million in parking charges over the year.

At the bottom was Breckland, East Northamptonshire and Broadland, with an income of just £1,000.