Brighton & Hove City Council - £ 16 000 000 parking fines

[Uncle Spielberg]

Brighton's motorists paid out record £16 million in parking charges
10:20am Thursday 19th August 2010

By Rebecca Evans

Hard-hit motorists paid out more than £16 million in parking charges and fines last year – netting council bosses record profits.

Brighton and Hove City Council raked in a £7.6million profit in the last financial year, beating its previous record by nearly £250,000.

The council made £16,054,737 in parking fines and charges, equivalent to nearly £44,000 each day.

Despite the record figures, council bosses could not guarantee fares and fees would not be increased further next year.

On street parking raked in £8.3 million and income generated from residents’ permits also increased to £3.7million.

However, the council says all increases are in line with inflation, adding that it pumps all surplus money back into transport projects.

Last night critics said recent parking zones were motivated by “greed” rather than the needs of residents.

For a full report see today's Argus.

 

[Uncle Spielberg]

£ 7 600 000 profit in 1 year.

 

[Uncle Spielberg]

£ 44000 a day at £ 30 thats nearly 1500 tickets being issued everyday.

 

[Tricky Dicky]

It says charges and fines, so, given that all the pay carparks are private (I think), what do "charges" entail ? Or do the private carparks pay the council a portion of their takings

 

[Tooting Gull]

Jesus. So without the parking charges and fines, the council would have lost over £8million. How anyone can claim these are done solely for the common good, with no eye whatsoever on the revenue aspect, is beyond belief. It has become an easy way for councils to rip off motorists, and money has totally warped their thinking on the issue. Sheer greed.

 

[Notters]

It says charges and fines, so, given that all the pay carparks are private (I think), what do "charges" entail ? Or do the private carparks pay the council a portion of their takings

They're not private anymore, they're all owned by the council.

 

[Stoichkov]

Putting aside the debate around parking enforcement rationale, why isn't this run in house by the local authority?

NCP must cream off a massive amount and operating the contract isn't rocket science. The infrastructure (line painting, planning, consultation, ticket machines) is provided by the local authority so why isn't the most straightforward bit - the actual patrolling of areas and ticketing - carried out by the Council?

For those who consider this accumulation of fines a bitter pill to swallow, at least it could be sweetened by knowing that this money is going back into the public pot without a chunk being taken by NCP

 

[Gwylan]

Jesus. So without the parking charges and fines, the council would have lost over £8million. How anyone can claim these are done solely for the common good, with no eye whatsoever on the revenue aspect, is beyond belief. It has become an easy way for councils to rip off motorists, and money has totally warped their thinking on the issue. Sheer greed.

Or, to put in another way, if they hadn't received this money from parking charges, they'd have to have raised another £8m from council tax - that's a hefty increase for most households.

At least there's a progressive element to the tax in that motorists are going to be wealthier than average, so there is some sort of logic there.