WORCESTER City Council raked in £2.4million from parking charges in the last financial year as revenue from the city’s car parks increased for the first time in three years.
A total of £2,416,000 was collected by Worcester parking chiefs last year, an increase of £330,000 compared to the previous year.
The sum is the highest collected by the city’s car parks since £2.8million was spent in the city’s car parks in 2013/14.
Worcester was top of the local authorities in the county for income from parking charges and 86th in the list of 353 English councils.
The league tables are published in a new report by the motorists’ charity the RAC Foundation which reveals a record £819million was raked in by the 353 local authorities in England.
According to the figures, the sum is 10 per cent higher than the £744million made in the previous financial year and 40 per cent higher than the £587million made in 2012-13.
The figures are calculated by taking income from parking charges and penalty notices minus running costs and were sourced from the annual returns councils make to the Department for Communities and Local Government.
Steve Gooding, director of the RAC Foundation, said: “The upward path in profits is in part a reflection of the record number of cars and volume of traffic.
“The silver lining for drivers is that these surpluses must almost exclusively be ploughed back into transport and as any motorist will tell you there is no shortage of work to be done.
“We urge motorists to take the time to read their own local authority’s parking report so they can see both the rationale for charges in their area and how the surplus is being spent.”
In response, a city council spokesperson suggested the rise could be attibuted to more people visiting and parking in the city centre as council chiefs had frozen parking charges for two years.
“Our parking charges were once again frozen this year and we are proud that our charges are lower than many neighbouring towns and cheaper than commercial operators.
“The income we get from our car parks and off street parking, whilst being great value to drivers, brings in revenue that supports other council services such as street cleaning and our parks.
“Worcester is a vibrant city drawing in thousands of visitors each day so it is crucial that we keep the city’s roads free from obstruction and offer visitors safe, clean, convenient and value-for-money parking.”
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