Council Parking Charges Rake In Millions

1 August 2013, 11:20 | Updated: 30 March 2016, 13:50

New stats show Newcastle City Council made almost £7 million from parking charges last year, while Sunderland Council made a loss.

During 2011/12 the combined amount of cash left over by councils in England after money was spent on parking services, filling potholes, funding park and ride schemes, street lights and road improvements was £412m.

This is a £54m increase in the surplus left over in 2010/11.

The authority with the biggest surplus, before spending on road infrastructure was taken into account, was Westminster Council with £41.6m in 2011/12.

RAC Foundation director Professor Stephen Glaister said:
"For many local authorities, parking charges are a nice little earner, especially in London.

Not all authorities make big sums. Several run a current account deficit and indeed of those with surpluses, many will see the money vanish when capital expenditure is taken into account.

But the bottom line is that hundreds of millions of pounds are being contributed annually to council coffers through parking charges."

North East Parking Charges

The table below shows the breakdown of how much money each of the councils in the North East made from parking charges since 2009.  

Local Authority 2011/12 2010/11 2009/10 National
Ranking
Durham 388 412 1 224
Darlington 1,345 1,151 1,287 115
Gateshead 72 62 -91 285
Hartlepool 445 510 636 208
Middlesbrough 640 462 901 178
Newcastle 6,707 4,559 4,741 12
North Tyneside 813 573 189 156
Northumberland 1,829 1,740 1,970 81
Redcar & Cleveland 0 0 0 298
Stockton 5 79 92 295
Sunderland -362 -394 -442 335