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Drivers paying the price with rising parking fees

Motorists are being hit with bigger parking fees and fines to fund council revenues, according to official reports for 2008/09.

The cost of parking your car has increased by more than 13%, with drivers paying £1.7 billion in fees, fines and permits to park in council-owned parking spaces.

With charges rising sharply, drivers are now faced with a more expensive penalty for using their vehicle.

Critics have claimed that parking charges are being used to boost council revenues in the face of shrinking grants from central government. As an alternative method to raise funds, it is unfortunately drivers who seem to be paying the price.

Jennifer Dunn, Policy Analyst at the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said the figures showed councils are using drivers as a “cash cow”.

She said: “Councils are generating huge amounts of revenue through parking, which has clearly become an increasingly lucrative source of income to finance rapidly growing bureaucracies in the local authorities.

“With council tax having doubled across the country, motorists in some areas where parking revenue has also doubled are being treated as cash cows.”

"It is time for local government to stop seeing drivers as a means to plug their finances and acknowledge the benefits they bring to local economies, particularly in the recession.”

Drivers also face a £15 surcharge if they commit minor motoring offences, such as breaching parking regulations or speeding, as it emerged that funds will go towards compensating victims of violent crime and sex attacks.

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