Dorset Council made nearly £6 million from car parks over last financial year

The authority says money raised from parking fees gets ploughed back into parking services, maintaining car parks and repairing roads across the county.

Figures show that the council made £5.89m in profit from parking services in the financial year 2019-20, between April 2019 and April 2020.

That was up 24 per cent from £4.75m raked in the previous year, and a 19 per cent increase from £4.96m in 2015-16. The figures for previous years are the combined total of the council's predecessor authorities.

‘Delicate balance’ of appropriate car parking fees and ensuring visitors still visit areas 

Dorset Council has lost more than £1m from car parking income during lockdown. Picture of Trinity Street car park, Dorchester. Picture: Trevor Bevins

Councillor Ray Bryan, portfolio holder for Highways, Travel and Environment, explained that there is a ‘delicate balance’ of appropriate car parking fees and ensuring visitors still come to towns.

He said: “Car park revenue is a vital income source for Dorset Council. It is wrong to describe the income the council receives from car parking as profit. Dorset Council is not a commercial business making a profit for investors.

“Money generated from car parks pays for the provision of the service, including the maintenance of the physical car park itself as well as the machinery, equipment, technology and the local people employed within the team.

“After these expenses have been covered, the income from car parks is spent within the highways service, contributing to the repair of our roads.

“Charging for car parks is an important part of how we manage traffic effectively. The pricing of our car park charges is a delicate balance of maximising income while ensuring that residents and visitors will still choose to support our high streets, beaches and attractions.

“We’re continuing our review of car parks following the creation of Dorset Council. This work aims to make parking charges more comparable across all council-owned car parks and includes looking into the creation of a Dorset Council area shoppers permit to help residents to continue to shop locally.”

Car park income set to be affected by pandemic 

Income from parking has been drastically hit due to the Covid pandemic this year, leaving the council facing a £3m drop in car park income while its maintenance and running costs remain the same.

The authority announced changes to parking fees in a bid to claw back some of the lost income and level out fees across the county, including extending charges from 6pm to 8pm on council-run car parks.

But following concerns that the extension would hit local hospitality businesses when lockdown restrictions are lifted, the council has dropped the evening charges for now – although Sunday charges will still be introduced in many areas for the first time.

In West Bay and Lyme Regis, all-day charges in council owned car parks will now quadruple, rather than double as originally suggested – going up from £2 to £8.

'Parking management is quite a money-spinner for some councils'

Figures gathered by the RAC Foundation show that across England, councils made a combined profit of £891m from parking activities in 2019-20 – down five per cent from £934m a year earlier.

“Parking management is quite a money spinner for some local authorities, and nationally it is a big business,” said RAC Foundation director Steve Gooding.

“The surplus for 2019-20 is down a little on the year before which may in part reflect the impact of the first Covid lockdown which saw traffic levels plummet at the end of last March.

“The dip is likely to be much deeper for the current financial year given the range of restrictions over the past 12 months and the Government’s current plea that we should all stay at home if we can.

“Going forward there are likely to be many councils who are actually looking to cut parking charges as a way of encouraging more people to visit their high streets which are fighting for survival.”

The analysis is based on data from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.

It reveals the vast majority of the 338 councils who returned figures reported a surplus on their parking operations, with some areas of London reporting profits of tens of millions of pounds.

David Renard, transport spokesman for the Local Government Association, said councils have to ensure spaces are available for drivers to keep traffic moving and avoid dangerous obstructions in the roads.

“With an increase of 10 million cars on the road in the last 20 years, this has become increasingly challenging for councils.

“Income raised through on-street parking charges and parking fines is spent on running parking services.

“Any surplus is spent on essential transport projects, including fixing potholes and tackling congestion, but it would take more than a decade and £10 billion to tackle our current roads repair backlog.”