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Brighton and Hove City Council's £7 million parking profit

11:00pm Thursday 22nd October 2009 in


City drivers pay more than £40,000 to park every day –and the amount is rising.

New figures have revealed Brighton and Hove City Council is raking in a record amount through parking charges, more than even its own staff had been expecting.

The council announced this week that its income from fees and fines for on-street parking was already £100,000 higher than predicted after just six months of the financial year.

Revenue from its 13 car parks was £50,000 above predictions.

The soaring income follows a record-breaking year in 2008/9 during which the council raked in £15.8 million through parking charges and fines, equivalent to £43,287 each day or £63 a year each for every one of the city's 250,000 residents.

It made a profit of £7.4 million That amount was a £1.2 million leap from the £6.2 million and £13.9 million income generated in 2007/8.

The rocketing figures have followed increases in prices for residents' permits, car park and pay-and-display tickets implemented in April.

Details of the above-predicted income has come at a time when hundreds more people are having to pay to park in their own streets because of extensions to controlled zones around the Preston Park area and in East Brighton.

Comments(23)

TheInsider says...
11:14pm Thu 22 Oct 09

The council could make that £8 million if it put parking meters in the cycle lane on the Lewes Road.
Come on Mary Mears, take a look and sort it out.
Go on, treat yourself to a trip out of King's House.

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Dave At Home says...
11:22pm Thu 22 Oct 09

Disgraceful and is there any shame there?

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bug eye says...
12:28am Fri 23 Oct 09

it is outrageous, there should only be soft touch permit schemes and a resident should get their first permit free with proof and all cars with eco credentials should get free parking, like the car tax system is encouraging eco cars. it is a money making machine and we all know that yet the roads do not improve for the car user. fairness will always be accepted but a rip off will not, brighton already has a bad name around the country and is putting people off visiting. as for the new prisons I mean car parks they appear less safe than open light ones with security staff, more waste of our money.

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S.T. Rewth says...
5:10am Fri 23 Oct 09

And the big fat bonus goes to...


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jagiwatch says...
7:08am Fri 23 Oct 09

WE WOULDN'T MIND SO MUCH IF WE COULD PARK!
WE PAY FOR A PERMIT AND STILL HAVE PROBLEMS.
THE COUNCIL SHOULD CHANGE THE POETS CORNER PARKING TO RESIDENTS ONLY AFTER 8PM INSTEAD OF LETTING NON-RESIDENTS/NON-PE
RMIT HOLDERS PARK FREE!
WHERE IS THE FAIRNESS IN THAT?

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Tye says...
7:23am Fri 23 Oct 09

In other words its a TAX

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stan bailey says...
7:36am Fri 23 Oct 09

S.T. Rewth wrote:
And the big fat bonus goes to...

Yep, we pay our council tax. We then have to pay far more to park our cars in the town than say those who live in Chichester, that is a proper city with a cathedral.

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smalltowngirl says...
8:20am Fri 23 Oct 09

My brother and his neighbour have permits but have been credit crunched and can't afford to run their cars.
They thought they would set up scalextric in
'their' bays and run sponsered races. The money would go to their other neightbour
as he is claiming every benefit going and only jusy managing to run his gas guzzler and go to the pub 6 days a week.

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King from Hove says...
8:47am Fri 23 Oct 09

Seems like the poor frustrated motorist is financing the traffic jams and gridlocked Brighton caused by bus and cycle lanes.We are also paying for the extra traffic lights which are programmed to annoy the motorist.A259 NIGHTMARE journey home was also paid for in a perverted way by the motorist.

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Jimmy Stewart's Imaginary Rabbit says...
8:48am Fri 23 Oct 09

Excellent news. This is the council treating traffic as a resource to be exploited and not equivalent of a plague of locusts. It proves to the anti-car lobby that cars DO have a role to play in Brighton - the more income we can generate from parking the less they have to raise through council tax. If the people who have used the car parks had travelled by bus that revenue would have been lost to the city as it would have gone straight into Go-Ahead's coffers. Now all they have to do is reverse some of the more spiteful anti-car schemes of the last five years (to free up more parking spaces and to allow traffic to flow more freely) and we might yet reach a compromise between public and private transport.

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The Devils Advocate says...
9:47am Fri 23 Oct 09

Finally we find a reason why they won't build a proper Park and Ride for Brighton.
This council is stealing money from us just to park outside our homes.

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Tony Hancock says...
10:13am Fri 23 Oct 09

I have a simple solution that works 100% - as long as you aren't a resident or need to park for work.
DON'T GO TO BRIGHTON TO SHOP FOR ANYTHING.
Drive to another town, or an out of town shopping centre which allows you to park for nothing, or better still, do your shopping online.
When the revenue from parking fees start to fall, they'll have to have a rethink.
My sympathies for those that don't have a parking option. But if you bought a house in Brighton with no off road parking, you should have known what you were getting into.

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Fercri Sakes says...
10:41am Fri 23 Oct 09

@King from Hove. Yes, let's blame the cyclists, durrrrr!

I have no problems with the council getting £7m in parking income IF the overall council tax bill was reduced by the same amount. That way visitors would be subsidising our council tax, which would be a good thing.

But no, this money is probably going into some investment fund.

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Darling2 says...
1:40pm Fri 23 Oct 09

So if they are making so much money from parking as well, why are the school buildings falling down? And why are the house stocks in such a disgusting state of disrepair? Where is this money going?

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andygunner says...
4:46pm Fri 23 Oct 09

'Aisea Havili Kaufusi (born 11 March 1977) is a Tongan rugby union footballer, who currently plays as a winger for Cornish Pirates in National Division One as well as for the Tonga national team.
Havili began his rugby career in his home country of Tonga, before eventually moving to Wales to play for Bridgend. Upon the advent of regional rugby in Wales in 2003, he joined the Celtic Warriors, whom he played for until they were disbanded in 2004. He was picked up by the Llanelli Scarlets soon afterwards and became the top try scorer in his first season in West Wales.

However, in 2005, Worcester showed an interest in Havili and he was released from his contract after just one year with the Scarlets so that he could sign for the West Midlands club. Havili's first season at Worcester went well, scoring a total of ten tries in just 16 appearances.

After not making a single appearance in the 2007-08 season, it was announced in May 2008 that Havili would be leaving Worcester Warriors to sign for National Division One side Cornish Pirates.

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TheInsider says...
5:01pm Fri 23 Oct 09

Residents pay council tax yet are forced to buy a permit to park on the road outside their homes while students don't pay council tax nor do their landlords, yet they buy permits each and because they don't go out all day, have four cars permanently parked up on the street as the four next door to me do.When I get home after working 12 hours, I can't park despite paying for a permit.
Now, that's a fiddle.
Why don't the council or the colleges restrict student parking when they don't evenpay council tax and houses of multiple occupation are putting unnecessary burden on our roads.

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sussex tiger says...
5:09pm Fri 23 Oct 09

maybe mary mears should go back to her friut and veg stall and leave the a259 alone before long we will be charged for sitting at the traffic lights reduce our council taxs with the money our sort out our local schools and the housing budget is spent come on mary mears open your eyes

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hawksmoor says...
5:25pm Fri 23 Oct 09

The usual self indulgent rants from car owners. When are they going to realise that owning a car in a city is a privilege not a right? The public highway is just that, it's not a private space because your house is nearby. If you want to own a car it is your responsibility to accommodate it, not the Council's. The permit fee is far lower than a commercial rent for a space of such a size. The Council should increase fees substantially to stop this needless subsidy of car ownership. Most citizens of Brighton do not own a car; owners are a minority who insist on polluting the air, obstructing and destroying pavements, despoiling the beauty of the city, and churning out carbon. If we all owned cars where would we all park? Owning a car is not essential except for a relatively few people. Most don't need a car, they just want one, and it is not the City's responsibility to house them.

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TheInsider says...
6:42pm Fri 23 Oct 09

Exactly hawksmoor.
I work all over the south east in remote sites. I also work in Southampton, London and Birmingham and I use trains which I love.
My partner is a nurse who works night and twilight shifts and we share the car. When I get home off she goes to various hospitals, unable to use public transport to some hospitals and at the times the shifts require.
However, the students next door park up week after week and don't need gthe cars as they can't park at the uni so all four cars sit outside the house for weeks on end.
They use them to pop to Tesco and collect their take outs on most evenings.
At weekends my partner and I walk and cycle everywhere and she has even invested in an old lady trolley we use to do our shopping.
We don't mind the permit, we do mind the council selling three permits per space, particularly when yes, some car users have them for pure luxury.

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stan bailey says...
7:28pm Fri 23 Oct 09

TheInsider wrote:
Residents pay council tax yet are forced to buy a permit to park on the road outside their homes while students don't pay council tax nor do their landlords, yet they buy permits each and because they don't go out all day, have four cars permanently parked up on the street as the four next door to me do.When I get home after working 12 hours, I can't park despite paying for a permit.
Now, that's a fiddle.
Why don't the council or the colleges restrict student parking when they don't evenpay council tax and houses of multiple occupation are putting unnecessary burden on our roads.
Oxbridge students aren't allowed cars at uni. Their colleges respect the native population

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TheInsider says...
10:59pm Fri 23 Oct 09

It's a tough one and I understand that students may say there should be equality of rights, but they don't pay council tax nor do their landlords.
But tonight I came home and the same four cars are in the same spaces they have been for two weeks, covered in leaves, bird mess not even being used.
It seems pointless.

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greeg says...
11:17pm Fri 23 Oct 09

TheInsider wrote:
It's a tough one and I understand that students may say there should be equality of rights, but they don't pay council tax nor do their landlords. But tonight I came home and the same four cars are in the same spaces they have been for two weeks, covered in leaves, bird mess not even being used. It seems pointless.
They should be paying their road tax though,check it out.

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pun master says...
7:53am Sat 24 Oct 09

andygunner wrote:
'Aisea Havili Kaufusi (born 11 March 1977) is a Tongan rugby union footballer, who currently plays as a winger for Cornish Pirates in National Division One as well as for the Tonga national team.
Havili began his rugby career in his home country of Tonga, before eventually moving to Wales to play for Bridgend. Upon the advent of regional rugby in Wales in 2003, he joined the Celtic Warriors, whom he played for until they were disbanded in 2004. He was picked up by the Llanelli Scarlets soon afterwards and became the top try scorer in his first season in West Wales.

However, in 2005, Worcester showed an interest in Havili and he was released from his contract after just one year with the Scarlets so that he could sign for the West Midlands club. Havili's first season at Worcester went well, scoring a total of ten tries in just 16 appearances.

After not making a single appearance in the 2007-08 season, it was announced in May 2008 that Havili would be leaving Worcester Warriors to sign for National Division One side Cornish Pirates.
An excellent point, eloquently put. I totally agree...

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