for some English councils, according to the RAC Foundation.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-23518194
The 359 councils across England had a total current account surplus of £565m from on and off-street parking schemes in 2011-12, according to the figures.
Eight of the biggest 10 surpluses came from London councils with Westminster leading the way with a £41.6m profit.
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No wonder councils treat motorists as cash cows.
On the other hand, the High St has lost equivalent amount of business. Why anybody express surprise at the news of town centres' demise?
Councils can start offering free parking at weekends to promote local business. But they won't for obvious reason.
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I find this debate confusing.
If parking charges are an issue, surely local elections will sort it out. The voters will vote in a "lower parking charges" candidate..
Since they don't.. either they do not care or the charges apply mainly to incomers and not voters.. in which case why not.
Too much attempt to centralise decisions. Let local Government decide and if they get it wrong, tough. (I always thought Mrs Thatcher should have let Liverpool go bust in the 1980s...)
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>> The voters will vote in a "lower parking charges" candidate..
Voters don't know that they have any option.
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Well, voters seem to notice that they have the option to whinge, so perhaps they should pay a bit more attention.
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>>The voters
>> will vote in a "lower parking charges" candidate..
You assume that such a candidate, indeed party of candidates, is available.
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>>
>> You assume that such a candidate, indeed party of candidates, is available.
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It will never be available, because British voters are only interested in things that candidates undertake to DO, which always cost money, rather than NOT DO, which saves money.
This is unfortunately not America. No one here is going to vote for something like that Californian proposition abolishing property taxes, leaving the council to sort out how it was going to deal with it. The British are too wedded to interventionist feather-bedding, rather than the idea that freeing people from costs and controls will stimulate initiative and the economy.
The idea that removing parking restrictions will encourage people to use high street shops is simply incomprehensible to local authorities.
Similarly that reducing the business rate will stimulate businesses and increase building occupancy.
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>>No one here is going to vote for something like that Californian proposition abolishing property taxes, leaving the council to sort out how it was going to deal with it. The British are too wedded to interventionist...........
So true.
The British Public likes to give a politician a job, control how he does it, and then complain about the result.
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The British are too wedded to interventionist feather-bedding, rather than the idea that freeing people from costs and controls will stimulate initiative and the economy.
Like in the NHS, The MoD, Education and care homes of course !
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I personally think Local government should be locally funded . period. Including everything except pensions and health.
The idea of Central Government playing money swictheroos to get it favourite jobs done is a nonsense. And probably adds a layer of administration to both central and local government which adds at least 30% to teh cost of everything.
If Liverpool has no industry and cannot afford to pay unemployment benefit, it will force people to travle to work. And in areas with lots of jobs, taxes will fall increasing its attractiveness to employers.
We have a centrally planned economy which is top heavy with admin staff.
If Liverpool wants to borrow £500million and go bust like Detroit let it..
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If our council had a cash surplus, it wouldn't be wanting to charge £25 per annum for emptying garden waste bins.
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Parking charges are providing huge cash surpluses - movilogo
