Council sees sharp increase in parking revenue

In three months from April, in total residents paid over £244,000 for parking

Mid Devon District Council’s income from parking rose by more than a fifth in three months as patrols have been increased, encouraging drivers to pay for tickets.

In three months from April, in total residents paid over £244,000 for parking, up by £43,000 for the same period last year.

Parking app RingGo has a big part to play in the increase in income, with nearly £98,000 of parking paid using this method.

The council, which is responsible for overseeing car parks, but not on-street parking, said 715 penalty charge notices were issued in the three-month period.

According to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, that was up roughly 5% on the same period last year.

However Luke Howard, environment and enforcement manager for the council, said this year’s number could fall slightly if some appeals were accepted.

He said: "When I started at the council, I used my significant background in parking to implement a lot of change in how we patrolled car parks to maximise revenue going through the machines, but that does mean we have more penalty charge notices.

"We now patrol all the car parks daily, which wasn’t happening prior to a couple of years ago when I started."