Parking fines bring in £1million a year in Torbay

Torbay Council makes more than £1 million from parking fines each year, new figures confirm.

Parking revenue in total brought in almost £5 million, which the council spends on things like supporting public transport and repairing potholes.

The data, published on the council’s website, confirm the contribution motorists make towards Town Hall finances.

Parking tickets sparked a war of words on social media recently when a local driver took to Facebook to complain about being issued with a ticket for parking late at night on Paignton seafront without paying.

“Haven’t the wardens got anything better to do?” the driver fumed, but a number of responses pointed to the amount of money raised towards council services by parking fees and fines.

The figures for the year 2023/24 show the council collected £3.5 million from on-street parking fees, a figure which has risen steadily over the past three years. Fines brought in just over £1 million.

The council collected just over £5 million from its car parks, of which £230,000 came from fixed penalty notices.

After subtracting costs of almost £4 million, the council’s surplus from its on and off-street car parking operations in 2023/24 was £4,920,163.