Car park charges rake in millions for West Midlands councils
Parking helped rake in more than £3 million for local authorities across the West Midlands, it was revealed today.
It comes as it emerged parking profits across the country have reached a record high in 2012 to 2013.
Three councils in the area are operating their parking at a loss, while the rest all recorded a profit from on and off street parking operations.
Wolverhampton City Council was the top earner in the Black Country, bringing in £930,000 and Dudley Council made £409,000.
In Staffordshire, Lichfield made a £1 million profit, Stafford raked in £770,000 and Cannock Chase made £168,000.
Wyre Forest brought in £420,000.
Nationally, 52 of the 353 local authorities in England recorded negative numbers, with Walsall and Sandwell among them.
Walsall Council lost £286,000 during 2012-2013 through parking, South Staffordshire Council made a loss of £82,000 and Sandwell Council lost £17,000. Councillor Chris Towe, finance boss at Walsall Council, said: "We are doing our best to maintain the car parks and encourage people into the town.
"One of the biggest issues is that the Tesco car park in the town centre is free to use so people prefer to park there.
"We also have excellent public transport links which means people don't need to use the car parks.
"It is a concern because we do need the money to maintain the car parks.
"It is also a fine balance because people would not be very happy and would not use the car parks if we put up the price of parking."
Today's figures have been released by the RAC Foundation and come from the annual returns councils make to the Department for Communities and Local Government.
Figures were calculated by adding up income from parking charges and penalty notices, then deducting the running costs.
Professor Stephen Glaister, director of the RAC Foundation, said: "It is a case of déjà vu.
"Once again English councils have made record amounts from parking.
"Yet overall spending on local roads has fallen by nine per cent over the past three years with road safety expenditure down by as much as 20 per cent."
He said there was no disputing the figures as they were submitted by the councils themselves to central government.
"What's more, council budgets show that the surplus for the current year is set to be higher still," he added.
