Councils make more than £242m in three years from parking permits

Updated

Councils generated over £242 million from parking application permits since 2016, a new report has found.

It comes as the number of roads across the UK requiring parking permits has increased in recent years. An additional 2,500 permitted streets were introduced between 2016 and 2018 – up 5.9 per cent.

It means that whereas 42,187 of the UK’s roads required permits in 2016, the number of permitted roads rose to 44,693 in 2018.

However, despite the increase in the number of roads requiring drivers to display a permit in order to park, the number of permit applications has actually fallen. During 2018, 1.4 million applications were made – down from two million in 2016, and 1.6 million in 2017.

The study, conducted by insurers Churchill, also found that support for residential parking permits has actually waned; just 13 per cent of 2,003 adults surveyed believe that permits are a good thing.

Alex Borgnis, head of car insurance at Churchill, said: “For people who live in towns and cities, parking close to home can be a challenge, with access to available parking on many streets being in short supply. While the cost of permits can be frustrating for residents, they can make it significantly easier for people to park outside their own homes.”

The cost of parking permits varies significantly across the UK, as a result of different factors applied by different councils. In Lambeth, for instance, the price of a permit depends on vehicle emissions or engine size while in Norwich, it’s based on the length of the vehicle in question.

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