Car parking charges being used to raise general revenue

The request was successful.

Dear Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council,

In seeking to impose car parking charges for country parks, to increase the charges for on-street parking and to add to the areas being charged for on-street parking, what account has the Council taken of the High Court judgements against Camden Borough Council in 1995 and against Barnet Council in 2013, which stated that the 1984 Road Traffic Regulation Act under which Councils can charge for car parks and on-street parking is "not a fiscal measure" and "contains no provision which suggests that Parliament intended to authorise a Council to raise income by using its powers to to designate parking places on the highway and to charge for their use"

Yours faithfully,

Michael Dixon

InfoMgr, FinDMT, Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council

1 Attachment

Dear Mr Dixon

 

Thank you for your recent request made under the Freedom of Information
Act in relation to the proposed car parking charges.  Wirral Borough
Council can advise it adheres to the following legal position on car
parking income:

 

Parking income from on-street parking is restricted to the cost of
enforcing parking, contributing to off-street parking provision and, if
the provision of further off-street parking is unnecessary or undesirable,
contributing to the following activities:

o the costs of public passenger transport services
o highway improvement projects
o environmental improvements

 

The surplus income from off-street car parking can be used to fund traffic
related expenditure( e.g. the improvement and maintenance of highways and
related equipment). It is clear that it cannot lawfully be used to fund
e.g. social care or the Leisure Centres.

 

We trust that this information is of assistance to you.

 

Your sincerely,

 

Tracy O'Hare

Information Management Officer

Business Services - Digital

Treasury Building

Cleveland Street
Birkenhead
Wirral
CH41 6BL

[1]Tel:0151 691 8397

[2][Wirral Borough Council request email]

 

 

[3]LGC Awards15_Winner_MIP

 

This information supplied to you is copyrighted and continues to be
protected by the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.   You are free
to use it for your own purposes, including any non commercial research you
are doing and for the purposes of news reporting. Any other reuse, for
example commercial publication, would require our specific permission, may
involve licensing and the application of a charge

 

 

 

 

 

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1. file:///tmp/Tel:0151
2. mailto:[Wirral Borough Council request email]

Dear InfoMgr, FinDMT,

Thank you for clarifying the situation with regard to income from parking. Given that the income can only be used for the purposes which the law and you have specified, I trust that the income generated will be separately accounted for and ring-fenced to permitted expenditure; and will shoe separately in any financial accounting?

Yours sincerely,

Michael Dixon

InfoMgr, FinDMT, Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council

1 Attachment

Dear Mr Dixon

 

Further to your email of 23 February 2017, the Council can confirm that
all income generated from parking is correctly and appropriately allocated
through council budgets/financial accounting. Further information can be
found at
[1]http://www.wirral.gov.uk/results?search=....

 

We trust that this now concludes your enquiry.

 

Yours sincerely

 

 

 

Lynette Paterson

Senior Information Management Officer

Business Services - Digital

 

Treasury Building

Cleveland Street
Birkenhead
Wirral
CH41 6BL

[2]Tel: 0151 691 8201

[3][Wirral Borough Council request email]

 

 

[4]LGC Awards15_Winner_MIP

 

 

This information supplied to you is copyrighted and continues to be
protected by the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.   You are free
to use it for your own purposes, including any non commercial research you
are doing and for the purposes of news reporting. Any other reuse, for
example commercial publication, would require our specific permission, may
involve licensing and the application of a charge

 

 

 

 

 

show quoted sections

References

Visible links
1. http://www.wirral.gov.uk/results?search=...
2. file:///tmp/Tel:0151
3. mailto:[Wirral Borough Council request email]