Daily mail report - Town halls earn £340million a year from parking fines

[The Bald Eagle]

For the record.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2383916/Town-halls-earn-340m-parking-fines--want-double-penalties.html

[Tom Tom Str]

That figure is wrong according to LBC Radio -who only the other day were quoting a figure of £640 Million revenue across the UK is raised through Council parking charges and fines... during a program about Car Parking charges on air...
 Every listener who phoned in that I heard during the prog. was convinced the whole issue is a Scam with Targets and 0 tolerance applied since the Councils took over from the Police.   A spokesman from Westminster Council phoned in to dispute their own figure for 2012  which was quoted as £41 Million alone...He said it was nearer £33 Million !! He also said that if there were lower charges / fines the Whole of Central London would be clogged up with traffic and no-one could park anywhere, and that residents pay only .29p per day to park in Central London... He couldn't see any problem at all... Oh what a Surprise !   

[DastardlyDick]

I seem to remember reading somewhere that the difference in the figures is that the higher figure is the Gross Profit, and the lower figure is arrived at after subtracting the money actually spent on "Transport Projects" which includes things like repairing roads, OAP Bus Passes etc.

Yet another example of the old adage "there are lies, then there are damn lies, and then there are statistics".

[Ewan Hoosami]

"there are lies, then there are damn lies, and then there are statistics is what the council spokesweasel says".

Better.   

[The Bald Eagle]

That figure is wrong according to LBC Radio -who only the other day were quoting a figure of £640 Million revenue across the UK is raised through Council parking charges and fines... during a program about Car Parking charges on air...
 Every listener who phoned in that I heard during the prog. was convinced the whole issue is a Scam with Targets and 0 tolerance applied since the Councils took over from the Police.   A spokesman from Westminster Council phoned in to dispute their own figure for 2012  which was quoted as £41 Million alone...He said it was nearer £33 Million !! He also said that if there were lower charges / fines the Whole of Central London would be clogged up with traffic and no-one could park anywhere, and that residents pay only .29p per day to park in Central London... He couldn't see any problem at all... Oh what a Surprise !   

I think you will find that the higher figure (£640m) relates to all revenue surpluses from parking, whereas the lower figure quoted in the Mail (£340m) is purely revenue from fines.