Councils in England have raked in one more record auto parking surplus with the big scale utilize of “spy cars” blamed for the 12 per cent increase.
In 2013/14 councils in England produced a integrated ‘profit’ of £667 million from both on as well as off street auto parking operations. That’s up from the £594 million made in 2012/13 while nearly half of the figure (44 per cent) came from London boroughs.
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Some councils don’t make a significant surplus however extremely few lose out – only 55 of the 353 auto parking authorities reported unfavorable numbers according to the RAC foundation which released the findings.
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Communities secretary Eric Pickles, who has previously attempted to fracture down on over-zealous auto parking policies, stated the bumper year can be associated to the growing increase of spy cars.
He said: “These official figures show exactly how town halls are committing daylight robbery by ripping off chauffeurs with exorbitant auto parking charges as well as unfair auto parking fines.
“The recent growth in fines is coming from the industrial utilize of CCTV spy vehicles enabled under legislations introduced by the last government. This is why we have introduced a legislation before Parliament to stop these snoopers, as part of bundle of steps to rein in the town hall auto parking bullies as well as secure regional shops.”