HULL City Council has hit back at criticisms after it reportedly made almost £1.7m in parking charges last year.
The figure, released by the RAC, found the local authority made a £1,682,000 surplus on parking charges in 2011-12 – up from £1,190,000 the previous year.
The surplus refers to the amount of revenue generated by parking charges, before capital expenditure – for example ticket machines or roads resurfacing – is deducted.
Out of the 359 local authorities which are listed in the table, Hull's figures mean it has the 89th highest surplus.
East Riding Council comes in at 177th, having reduced its surplus from £1.8m in 2009-10 to £645,000 in 2011-12.
Neither councils were able to say whether their capital expenditure was greater or less than its surplus.
A Hull City Council spokesman said: "Revenue received from parking charges is used to fund parking enforcement, support local bus services including the Priory Park and Ride service, as well as general highway maintenance, which includes road resurfacing and filling potholes."
An East Riding Council spokesman said: "We have not studied the figures being reported, but understand that not all of the expenditure undertaken on car parks is necessarily shown in the way the returns to Government are requested. We hope to publish our first annual car parking report towards the back end of the year, which will assist in clarifying car parking figures in the East Riding."
Driving instructor Jayne Beck, of Sproatley, parked her car in Savile Street, city centre, yesterday.
She said: "I don't believe it is fair to be making money out of parking charges.
"But I do think motorists will accept it more if they know the money being made is ploughed back into parking and the roads.
"It's not so bad for short-stay parking but it gets very expensive if you want to stay all day."
Hull's surplus may be dwarfed by the authorities at the top of the table, 80 per cent of which are in the capital.
However, a spokesman for the RAC has stated: "Hull was certainly up there with the big boys."
He said: "For a relatively small place it is quite a large surplus, particularly considering most of the authorities with the biggest income are in the capital. The table also shows that Hull's surplus has surged in the past year, up to more than £1.6m."
Professor Stephen Glaister, director of the RAC Foundation, pointed out not all authorities make big sums of cash.
He said: "Several run a current account deficit and indeed of those with surpluses many will see the money vanish when capital expenditure is taken into account."
However, he said that for many councils across England, "parking charges are a nice little earner".
Professor Glaister added: "The bottom line is that hundreds of millions of pounds are being contributed annually to council coffers through parking charges and the drivers who are paying them have a reasonable expectation to see the cash spent on improving the roads."
In Hull, short-stay car parks charge £1 per hour or less and £12 for the day, while the long-stay and multi-storey car parks charge £6.60 for the day.
In the East Riding, short-stay charges can be as little as 60p, while all-day parking at long-stay car parks costs £5.40 anywhere in the county.
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