Council Parking

[emmie]

is this just another money making exercise

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-23518194

[mushroom25]

yes - and they've been found out.....
http://www.localgov.co.uk/index.cfm?method=news.detail&id=110531

[emmie]

i confess that i have long thought that, the profits are enormous.

[emmie]

what do they do with the money.. our local authority has been closing libraries, care facilities cutbacks, and mental health units shut, why...

[Gromit]

Parking costs are always under estimated and i simply do not believe the figures. Most councils actually make a loss on providing parking. They ( and I suspect this report0 only estimate the admin costs and anything above that they call profit. They ignore the costs of the land, the rent of the land, the maintenance of the site etc.

http://www.britishparking.co.uk/write/Documents/BPA/BPA%20response%20to%20The%20Portas%20Review%20-%20100212.pdf

[Octavius]

I worked on a buiness case for a hospitak parking scheme and it was a fairly high capital cost for installation, but the projected output was that the ticket returns would recover the capital costs within 6 weeks and then become profit, with minimal revenue expense.

My wife bought a £1 ticket in a council car park last week but the machine spurted out a nighttime parking ticket without her realising (or checking daft sod). She got a parking ticket, even though she had bought a ticket, it was the same price (just different hours) and a ten minute whizz around M&S cost an extra £25. I know its technically a contravention but you'd think the parking attendant would realise she'd just pressed the wrong button or something as it was 11am and she had paid £1 and the issue time was on the ticket.

[jno]

ticketing error, I hope Octavia challenged that one?

[Octavius]

She has jno, just waiting to see, but she paid the fine before it went up to £40 just in case, so I am not convinced they will return funds already paid.

[Gromit]

Octavian

As I posted earlier, parking costs are always under estimated. Without very little googling I was able to find this counter Hospital Parking Scheme costing.

//

In 2011/12 the Trust received £1,182.422 from car parking across its three hospital sites.  This figure includes pay and display, staff deductions and charges to other organisations using the hospital sites.
 
How much does it cost to provide hospital car parking?
The cost of providing car parking varies year on year, depending on the maintenance and repairs required.  In 2011/12 the costs totalled £1,567,807, and were made up of maintenance, rents and rates, security cameras and equipment, security services, capital charges and depreciation. These have been audited as a true record of costs by RSM Tenon, the Trust’s auditors.
 
What happens to the money paid in penalty charge notices?
The Trust receives a proportion of the money received from penalty charge notices and this is used to cover the costs of providing the parking service. The Trust does not make any profit from car parking fines. //

http://www.westhertshospitals.nhs.uk/foi_publication_scheme/car_parking.asp

[Gromit]

Sorry,
Octavian...

[ChillDoubt]

With local authorities making £565 million from revenue from parking in 2011/2012 (figures presented by Sky News), shouldn't we have the best roads in Europe?
But no, year on year we have to suffer potholes and badly degrading highways, councils with not enough rocksalt, melting tarmac etc.
Where does the money get ploughed back into? Surely car parks are fairly low maintenance anyway so the money must go somewhere?

[Gromit]

Most council run parking bearly breaks even and many run at a loss. The vast majority of these 'earnings' are from illegal parking. Are you advocating fines for illegal parking should be abolished, and the costs picked up by the council tax payers?

[ChillDoubt]

No Gromit, I'd rather see someone do their job properly. If council parking is running at a loss, why is that? For a patch of tarmac that is fairly low(almost zero) maintenance, why is it not cost effective?

[vulcan42]

The councils seem to spend money needlessly, mine has just replaced all the ticket issuing machines with the latest models. There was nothing wrong with the old ones and in fact were better as when the machine ran out of ticket a shutter came down and prevented people putting in money. The new ones don't do that, perhaps that's why they've changed them.

[Gromit]

// a patch of tarmac that is fairly low(almost zero) maintenance//

lol. If only it was that easy.

[youngmafbog]

Do the London councils rent the kerbside then Gromit?

[Gromit]

No idea ymb. And your point is what exactly?

[youngmafbog]

You make a big point about expenses; rent.

This thread is about council parking (clue is in the title) which in London, is mainly on the roadside.

It has to be a rip off.

[ChillDoubt]

As you're obviously an expert Gromit, maybe you'll give us a full run down of the maintenance needs and costs for a few acres of Tarmac?
Re-paint the white lines once in a blue moon, re-surface every 12-15 years maybe and empty the ticket machines.
IMHO that's about it covered but do tell, we're all ears.

[tonyav]

Council = Robbing gits imo.

[Gromit]

Looking at Westminster Council who were the highest earning of these councils, in 2012 they made £37million surplus and £25million of that came from illegal parking fines.

Page 20 here...

http://www.westminster.gov.uk/workspace/assets/publications/WCC-Annual-Parking-report-2012_v5-1360080594.pdf