York parking fee income rises to £7.6m

Cars parked below Clifford's Tower

City of York Council took £7.6m in parking fees last year, it has been revealed.

After costs, the authority was in profit by £4.8m - according to the council's draft parking report for 2017/18.

Income came from parking fines, car parks, and resident parking zones, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

Thousands of tickets were also given to people driving down bus lanes.

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But despite the increase in income - up from £7.4m in 2016/17 - the council said it had had to pay "increased costs", including upgrading the city's pay and display machines to cope with new £1 coins.

It also had to pay £40,000 to a company to collect cash from the new machines, and another £40,000 for CCTV.

The electricity bill went up by £23,000 because the council owed money to public toilet company, Healthmatic, which had been covering its power bills for car parks at Nunnery Lane, St George's Field and Union Terrace for several years.

New data about the Coppergate and Low Poppleton Lane bus lanes shows that more than 2,500 fines have been issued since the start of 2018.

The automatic cameras were switched back on in Coppergate in January 2017, but for the initial six months drivers were sent warning letters the first time they drove down the bus lane.

The council is currently considering whether to introduce two more bus lane cameras, at Rawcliffe Bar and Foss Islands.

Any parking profit must be spent on public transport and highways, with £4.1m for roads, £582,000 for buses, and around £114,000 for community transport.