Hereford Council saving up for the ring road!

[megilleland]

From today's Daily Telegraph:

"Authorities in England and Wales saw their surplus from parking rise to £511.6 million in 2010-11 from £489.4 million a year earlier, according to an analysis of local authority accounts by the RAC Foundation.

Local authorities were warned by Mike Penning, the road safety minister, last year to stop treating motorists as an easy target to raise funds.

Town halls are supposed to use their powers to control parking to improve traffic flow and prevent gridlock on their streets.

They are prohibited from using these powers to bolster their income. However, many councils seek to get round this by earmarking the cash raised for other transport projects.

Westminster came top with a surplus of £38,196,000!

Herefordshire Council was listed at 148 out of 371 authorities with a surplus revenue of £863,000 from parking charges. How long would it take to pay for a ring road at this rate.

[Colin James]

From today's Daily Telegraph:

 

"Authorities in England and Wales saw their surplus from parking rise to £511.6 million in 2010-11 from £489.4 million a year earlier, according to an analysis of local authority accounts by the RAC Foundation.

 

Local authorities were warned by Mike Penning, the road safety minister, last year to stop treating motorists as an easy target to raise funds.

 

Town halls are supposed to use their powers to control parking to improve traffic flow and prevent gridlock on their streets.

 

They are prohibited from using these powers to bolster their income. However, many councils seek to get round this by earmarking the cash raised for other transport projects.

 

Westminster came top with a surplus of £38,196,000!

 

Herefordshire Council was listed at 148 out of 371 authorities with a surplus revenue of £863,000 from parking charges. How long would it take to pay for a ring road at this rate.

It's no wonder that the City shops are empty!

[megilleland]

Update on parking revenue for Herefordshire Council from RAC Foundation.

 

Local authority parking surplus hits new high

The surplus produced from council parking operations in England has reached a record high of just over three quarters of a billion pounds. In the 2015-16 financial year the 353 local authorities in England generated a combined ‘profit’ of £756 million from their on- and off-street parking activities. This is a 9% leap on the 2014-15 figure of £693 million, and 34% higher than in 2011-12.

Although not all individual councils made a large surplus on their parking activities just 49 (14%) reported negative numbers.

The figures are calculated by taking income from parking charges and penalty notices and then deducting running costs.

Herefordshire Council
2011-2012  £1,355,000
2012-2013  £1,563,000
2013-2014  £1,880,000
2014-2015  £2,613,000
2015-2016  £3,644,000

55th ranking out of 353 authorities

 

Westminster had the largest surplus in England (£55.9 million) followed by Kensington & Chelsea (£34.2 million) and Camden (£25.2 million).

[jbfc]

Two thoughts:

 

1.   I wonder what surplus will be declared for 2016 - 2017? I seem to remember a lot of fuss about revised parking charges, and people voting with their feet/wheels.

 

2.   Are the councils used as comparators here the same as the ones often used for comparing Council Tax Band D against Herefordshire? 

[Maggie May]

If they invested some of this money in improving the road surfaces around town it would make cycling locally a lot safer for people like me. Many other authorities like Nottingham have taxed car parking places and then used the money to fund trams and other transport options to give people a choice to avoid the higher car parking charges by leaving their cars behind. In Hereford they seem to want to price people out of cars but not to offer an alternative.