GENERAL
NEWS
CLASH OVER CASH
Recent reports in the national press have hastened the need for local authorities parking departments to ensure they publish their annual parking reports. This is important to demonstrate that excess revenue is used to maintain facilities and parking services, not to finance other local authority costs that are unrelated to parking. The press, both written and broadcast, has jumped on the bandwagon after a furore has been caused by comments from the chair of the Local Government Association’s Transport Board, David Sparkes, who said councils are pushing up parking charges to ease the pressure on their budgets. The comment was made after the Public Accounts Committee said councils in England made £411m profit from on- and off-street parking. Asked about how parking revenue was spent, Sparkes told MPs: ‘You will look at increasing car parking charges to alleviate the overall pressures on the budget.’
A report in The Daily Telegraph has claimed that ‘car parking charges are going up to keep council tax down.’ The committee’s report was critical of how the Department for Transport (DfT) controlled the £2.2bn it gave to councils, warning that there was a danger that the £1.2bn earmarked for fixing potholes and maintaining roads was being spent elsewhere.
Margaret Hodge, the committee chair, said the government should ensure that its cash and parking revenue was being spent on transport-related issues. She said: ‘A 2013 pothole crisis looms despite the DfT providing local authorities with £1.2bn for highway maintenance and local transport.
‘Drivers will think it a bit rich that some of the “bonus” income councils earn from ramped up parking charges is being used to cover some of the funds siphoned from the
highway maintenance grant for other council purposes, rather than being used to help keep car parks and roads intact.’ Norman Baker, transport minister, said:
‘Parking charges should be set appropriately to achieve a high degree of compliance with parking rules and improve traffic flow – not as a convenient way to raise a bit of cash. ‘There are clear rules which state that any money councils make from parking must be spent on improving transport in the area.’ Responding to the criticism, BPA chief executive Patrick Troy said: ‘This is precisely the reason that we are encouraging local authorities to publish annual reports. Accountability and transparency are essential to demonstrate where surplus income is spent.
‘But as we will tell the Transport Select Committee in April when it considers the issue of local parking management, local authorities manage their parking for the purposes of better traffic management and for the benefit of local traders and businesses, residents and visitors.’
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MARCH 2013
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