THE city council has made more money from parking than any other authority outside London.

Brighton and Hove City Council made a £24.8 million surplus from parking activities in the past financial year – the highest amount outside the capital.

The analysis has been released days after councillors voted to put up the price of parking across the city.

Councillors called the proposals “extortionate” and “callous”  before a committee voted for the changes anyway.

READ MORE: Brighton and Hove City Council vote for parking charge rise

The ruling Greens voted for the higher charges and the Conservatives voted against while Labour abstained, having criticised the proposed increases.

Labour said that it wanted to debate fees and charges next month when councillors set the budget for Brighton and Hove City Council for the financial year from April.

Research by the RAC Foundation found English councils made a combined £891 million surplus.

The figure for 2019/20 represents a 5 per cent decrease compared with the record £934 million total during the previous 12 months.

The amount that councils spent on running their day-to-day parking operations was £854 million, not including interest payments or depreciation of assets such as car parks.

English councils made a combined £891 million surplus from parking activities in the past financial year, according to new analysis.

These are the 20 councils in England with the largest surpluses from parking operations in 2019/20, according to the RAC Foundation:

  1. Westminster (£69.6 million)
  2. Kensington and Chelsea (£38.8 million)
  3. Camden (£29.0 million)
  4. Wandsworth (£28.4 million)
  5. Islington (£26.6 million)
  6. Hammersmith and Fulham (£25.5 million)
  7. Brighton and Hove (£24.8 million)
  8. Haringey (£19.7 million)
  9. Lambeth (£16.7 million)
  10. Nottingham (£16.4 million)
  11. Hackney (£15.5 million)
  12. Birmingham (£14.9 million)
  13. Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole (£13.9 million)
  14. Brent (£12.5 million)
  15. Croydon (£12.5 million)
  16. Tower Hamlets (£12.3 million)
  17. Merton (£12.2 million)
  18. Barnet (£12.2 million)
  19. Bristol (£11.5 million)
  20. City of London (£10.7 million)

David Renard, transport spokesman for the Local Government Association, said: “Councils have to try and ensure there are spaces available for everyone at all times of the day and we can keep traffic moving, and dangerous obstructions are dealt with.

“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.”