PARKING METERS

Higher charges for car parking and other services could soon rake in more money than council tax for local authorities as some town halls face up to black holes of more than £100m each. Councils struggling to cope with the fallout of the recession will target parking as one of the big sources of additional revenue. Also, drivers will increasingly have to pay to park outside their homes as councils use the promise of residents’ only parking as an excuse to introduce controlled parking zones.

Parking already generates almost £1.5 billion a year for local authorities. Many London councils issue annual permits costing up to £154, but make much more from parking meters and fines. Westminster raises £85m a year from on-street parking, only £3m less than it makes from council tax. London has the highest parking charges in the world, but the recession has hit revenues from meters on which local authorities such as Westminster are heavily reliant.

Town halls, already burdened with having to provide final salary pensions, have to chip away at their budgets. Council spending has boomed in recent years, rising by 37.3% since 2003. This is now set to go into reverse. The government’s current spending round runs until April 2011, after which payments to support local authorities, roughly half of their income, will be cut.

The councils think the drop is likely to be 10%-15%, but are making contingency plans for a decrease of 30% if Treasury forecasts for the economy prove too optimistic. This could mean cuts of 40% for some services because of the need to protect the most important. At the same time, low inflation means that caps will be imposed on increases in council tax, which makes up a quarter of local authorities’ income. (Source: Times Online, Aug/09)

Derby City Council has raised £665,000 - £40,000 more than expected from controversial parking meters and the cash is being spent on 14 items such as repairing street lights and improving roads. A total of 73 solar-powered pay and display machines were installed in 40 city centre streets in February 2002 and protesters at the time accused the council of devising a new "stealth tax".

But cabinet member for planning and prosperity, Councillor Sara Bolton, had offered reassurance that the cash would help public transport in the city. "The extra revenue will be put into improving public transport," she told the full council at its October meeting in 2001 before the meters were introduced. The same month, she told the council's policy committee that she hoped it would encourage more people to use park-and-ride schemes or the bus.

Director of development and cultural services, Jonathan Guest, said the council was fulfilling its promise because the money was still being spent on items related to transport such as improvements to roads. He said, "In a way they are revenue costs. It is fair to say they are not brand new additional works but we are not using this money to meet base budgets. There are certain inflationary pressures such as extra contractual costs, rises in staffing costs and re-tendered contracts, which have to be met. And, if we had not been able to use the on-street parking income to maintain standards, it would have meant a bigger council tax increase."

How Derby City Council has spent or plans to spend the revenue from on-street parking meters:

£15,000 from the first two months of parking meter revenue was spent on costs associated with car parking facilities, such as power and rates.

£10,000 for plants and refurbished street lights to boost Derby's chances in the Britain in Bloom competition.

£12,000 restoring vandalised bus shelters and a further £12,000 on school transport caused by longer terms.

Increased electricity and rates costs for council car parks accounted for £20,000.

Traffic management works - refurbishing pedestrian crossings and traffic lights - cost £10,000.

Trimming roadside trees cost £20,000.

Improvements to roads and footpaths cost £201,000.

A study into ways of encouraging children to use public transport to get to school cost £30,000.

CCTV cameras to monitor on-street parking cost £20,000.

£30,000 was spent on clearing drains to help avert flooding.

£30,000 on a hit squad dedicated to clearing graffiti from bus shelters and tackling dog-fouling.

£50,000 on lighting and security systems at car parks.

£38,000 to be spent on clearing drains in the coming year.

£167,000 will be spent on meeting increases in highways, street lighting and transport contracts.

The Council have installed parking meters in Crompton Street with no consultation with residents who find that their visitors (family, friends, carers, etc) must pay £1 per hour to park and remove their cars after 2 hours. Meanwhile, neighbouring streets have been classified as "Residents Only" and have been allowed the purchase of Visitors' Permits. Crompton Street is primarily residential, but is being utilised by the City Council as a shoppers' car park with the profits going to boost Council coffers.

The matter has been passed through the various Council Committees, resting with the Council Executive in Dec. 2002. In September 2003, it still has not been resolved and the petitioners are fed up with the City Council's procrastination. Meanwhile, parking tickets continue to be issued to residents and visitors, alienating the ratepayers of this street. It is unreasonable for this matter to be unresolved for such a length of time and calls into question the value and effectiveness of the Area Panels.

Once an issue has been raised, one should be able to depend upon the Panel to ensure it is followed up and resolved to everyone's satisfaction. Unfortunately, it seems to be the case that the Area Panel merely records events and takes no part in ensuring matters are followed up. It has been down to the petitioners to chase any progress and then with little result. Meanwhile, residents of Nottingham Road have had their parking meters removed. Chris Woodward