Parking income has gone up to almost £33 million in Brighton and Hove, according to a report to councillors.
The figure last year was £31.6 million, the Brighton and Hove City Council annual parking report said.
The surplus of £19.5 million from parking charges and fines last year went towards funding bus passes and subsidising some bus routes, according to the report.
On-street parking generated an extra £1 million, rising to £12.4 million in 2022-23 compared with the previous year.
Penalty charge notices were also up, with 146,190 fines issued in 2022-23 compared with 142,320 the previous year.
The report, to the council’s Transport and Sustainability Committee, said that 52 court prosecutions were brought for blue badge misuse.
There were also 179 cases where people faced a “community resolution” for misusing a blue badge – and 267 badges were retained by enforcement and investigation officers.
Enforcement officers were visiting four schools a day across Brighton and Hove to ensure that parents and carers were observing “keep clear” signs, the report said.
The parking team was working with head teachers, police and the council’s school streets and road safety teams to discuss issues during school run times.
In the report’s introduction, Labour councillor Trevor Muten, who chairs the council’s Transport and Sustainability Committee, said: “We know from listening to residents and hearing the experiences of visitors that there is room for improving and simplifying parking in the city.
“This is why, as the new Labour administration, we have commissioned a strategic review of parking strategy and traffic management with the aim of creating a more equitable parking service for residents, visitors and businesses alike.
“We will continue to progress this work over the coming year.”
Parking permit income increased to almost £12 million, compared with £11 million the previous year, up from £8.7 million in 2020-21.
Income from penalty charges – including on-street, bus lane and CCTV enforcement – fell slightly compared with the previous year.
In 2022-23, fines totalled £8.37 million, compared with £8.4 million the year before.
After the £13.2 million cost of parking enforcement was deducted from the overall parking income, the surplus came to £19.5 million.
All surplus parking and penalty charge income must be spent on public transport, road, air quality and environmental improvements.
In 2022-23, the council spent £10.6 million on concessionary fares for older people and the disabled.
Bus route subsidies came to £1.6 million, the council spent £1.8 million on capital investment borrowing costs and £5.4 million on transport-related spending.
Almost everyone who bought a resident parking permit did so online, with the proportion reaching 99 per cent of more than 46,000 households last year, the same level as the previous year.
More than 27,000 visitor permits were bought online – and more than 27,000 people used the parking customer services phone line, the report added.
The council’s Transport and Sustainability Committee is due to meet at Hove Town Hall at 4pm on Tuesday 6 February. The meeting is scheduled to be webcast on the council’s website.
Greedy council rips off residents with the second highest parking charges in the UK. Disgusting.
However, people continue to pay the charges and income is rising year-on-year, suggesting that charges have not yet reached a ceiling.
Anon
Interesting comment. However, people do not have a choice but to pay in some cases. You’re aware a lot of businesses will charge it’s customers the additional costs, therefore you and I will pay more.
Some of these Charges for Permits are too high, especially during a cost of living crisis. It isn’t a “free market” and there aren’t any real alternatives for many people who want to park near to their home.
The article suggests that revenue from parking sensors is less than the cost of enforcement.
No – it’s not a Free Market and council parking continues to be massively subsidised by the council tax payer. A quick online search shows private weekday parking in Brighton averaging at £3k pa – many time higher than the permit charge.
Free market dogmas tend to be ignored where cars are concerned. Rather than asking people to pay a fair price for leaving their private property on the highway, we bend over backwards to facilitate them.
The private motor car for mass mobility is a wholly inefficient, unhealthy and destructive option. The worst that has ever been devised. The sooner we can move away from it, the better off we will all be.
The Transport department is vastly overstocked with ‘sustainable transport’ officers. They are only interested in extorting money from the motorist. That is their agenda – pure and simple
Don’t like it ?
Email Head of Transport
Mark.prior@brighton-hove.gov.uk
His email is in the public domain
Ok so if there is £10mil kicking about after the busses are paid for, can we spend some of this on actually tarmacing some of the roads. They are really in a bad state. Lansdowne road is diabolical on a bike.
Castle square (not exactly massive equally a complete shambles, the busses actually shake and bang on that bit?
I think you are misreading it. All then money is spent.
So £10 million left, which is supposed to be spent on public transport, road, air quality and environmental improvements. Still there isn’t anything available to fix the appaling state of the roads or reinstate parking meters. And yet we can waste £13.4 million on an e-bike hire scheme that is hardly used, and £6 million (wait for the revised figures!) on removing a perfectly good roundabout for VG3. This report also claims that we spend over a million pounds a month just on parking enforcement, really?
Of course it won’t be spent on fixing potholes it is not a vanity project, and has no virtue signalling properties. Unfortunately the poor state of our road and footpath infrastructure is also linked to injuries, damage to cars and bikes alike and might fuel the desire to have a large SUV to safely navigate these poor surfaces. The lack of maintenance also leads to more loose material ending up in water gullies ( which by design need clearing annually) and becoming blocked. This leads to localised flooding and more water runoff that takes plastic and other contaminants directly onto the beach and into the sea.
But don’t worry someone will come up with another vanity project and build it on the house of cards that the city infrastructure is becoming.
I’m looking for a new home and designated parking is top of the list of priorities. the costs are outrageous and dont even guarantee a space. Ive often spent 20 mins driving round and round . If I didnt need the car for my work I just wouldn’t have one. The state of some of the roads is disgusting.
– No opening hours for parking services on the website, and people on local FB page said they were turned away the other week, as all online now, with few exceptions. There were problems with both the system, and also my errors as well. I eventually managed to buy some permits.
– To me, the computer system seems outdated. I do most, if not all my shopping online. If I make a mistake, then it’s easy to ammend the mistake on other sites, which makes it great for technophobes like me. but not with The Council’s site.
– Once purchased permits, the actual service was brilliant (thanks to the humans). I received them the next day, by courier tricycle.
– To an outsider looking in, I feel the computer system needs to be improved. I should imagine, the poor staff of this department (who have always been brilliant face-to-face, on the phone or responding to online queries), wouldn’t have as much pressure if it was, and less time could be spent on queries like mine. Maybe, I’m just one of a minority.
Permits have almost trebled in a year, that’s why their income has increased.
Where are the EO along Western Road and all the side streets? Vehicles double and illegally parked on a daily basis but none given a ticket. Why?
And don’t forget the millions raked in from motorists from the dodgy cash cow “bus gate” fines
BHCC are charging far and above what a council is lawfully allowed to charge for administering a scheme to prevent dangerous or inconsiderate parking. Parked cars do not emit so they cannot be penalised for emissions in the parking permit either and there have been no valid public consultations in this city. On top of all this there are currently no valid tariff boards or parking payment options available outside of the city’s multi-storey car parks. https://www.racfoundation.org/media-centre/barnet-council-loses-parking-charges-case
8am – 8pm tariffs every day including sundays is not only deplorable. It’s a down right disgrace
You’re misreading the findings of the case Barry. Whilst an interesting read, the council in question “misinterpreted the law when it concluded that it was lawful to “budget for a surplus (of parking charges) at any level which it considered appropriate in order to generate income for other transport purposes which it wished to fund.””
It doesn’t apply to your argument, I’m afraid.