The Isle of Wight Council plundered over £5million in revenue from parking in the 2021/22 tax year, making a profit of well over £3million from hard-pressed Isle of Wight motorists and visiting tourists.
Income from parking services amounted to £5,195,000 and expenditure came to £1,595,000, leaving a tidy profit of £3,600,00 to go into the Council coffers.
Of the almost £5.2million, ticket machines generated a whopping £3,799,000, whilst parking permits made £633,000. A nifty £597,000 was taken from parking fines – also known as Penalty Charge Notices.
The Council’s most lucrative car park in terms of revenue was River Road in Yarmouth, which generated £190,110 in 2021/22. This was followed by Quay Road in Ryde (£173, 775). In 3rd place came Shanklin’s Vernon Meadow car park (£137,134). Totland Broadway was the least profitable car park, generating just £821.
The parking profit of £3,300,000 is over twice that of the previous tax year (£1,510,000), in which usage of town centres was severely reduced due to COVID-19 restrictions. However, income this tax year was nearly £300,000 less than in 2019/20 when parking revenue generated £3,576,000.
Absolutely delighted to report that I contributed not one single penny to this scam. And I will continue the same way.
So am I delighted, neither of our cars contributed
Same here would never give a penny in parking to the greedy council.
Absolute greed, this council are so damn greedy it is disgusting. They should be REDUCING parking charges to entice people back to the towns or the shops will close, keep putting up charges will only put people off going anywhere.
Perhaps reduce charges but double the one at the back of CountyHall on weekdays and make it free at weekends.
Just stop stuffing money into the parking metres. That simple, haven’t put a penny in in years. Rather walk, don’t care how far – out of principle.
Agreed. When will they learn?
Yes all councils are the same I’m afraid.
How else do you think they afford big houses and expensive cars.i live and work in trafford and not long ago all the council leaders had a garden party all funded by the people there meant to help..like the man said the higher up you get the more corrupt it is!!!
Greedy? No, screwed by central (Con) government. Still legally obliged to provide mandated services but not provided with the cash nor allowed to raise it through conventional channels.
A rock and a hard place. Thankyou, Tories.
What make you think Liebour would be any better?
Why should they reduce prices there clearly making money hand over fist albeit crafty , I would not contribute to this money making scheme in any way or form .
Wonder where all the profit goes
Their massive pensions !
But, you don’t need to pay to park to go shopping? I’ve never paid and we do shopping 2 or 3 times a week, plus lots of other outings. Just use a little common sense and maybe understand that you might have to walk for a couple of minutes from the car to the town centre.
Wendy Perera, your council is failing, you’re overseeing the plundering of islanders pockets, our towns look tatty, the roads are STILL unfinished, public toilets are a disgrace or closed, services are cut back, the floating bridge is a national joke, the council tax is too high. Meanwhile, you have the cheek to take a massive salary. Shame on you and your cronies. Value for money…NOT. Disgraceful.
Not failing but is failed. If this was a proper commercial business it would bankrupt so why is it still there? Answer is that they demand money up front, yet fail to deliver the goods (services). Standard problem with anything you have to pay for in advance.
£5,195,000 less £1,595,000 expenditure leaves £3,600,000 profit not £3,300,000!
How does it cost 1.6 million to administer???
To charge people to park along Seafronts after 6pm is criminal, even
Portsmouth do not do that or many London Boroughs.
I agree it’s absolutely disgusting. It stops people taking dogs for walks if they need to drive to get there, even just popping down after work for a walk is made harder because of this. Are there no perks now! Should be free to park after six!!!! Grrrrrr
A nice big pay rise for some of council members then!!!
Motorcycles are free…
Perhaps this level of greed could be reduced, if the traffic wardens concentrated on patrolling the town more, and spent less time giving out tickets to residents living just outside of the towns, who struggle to park since all the parking has been removed.
Hang your heads in shame.
yes, and stop people PARKING ON DOUBLE YELLOW LINES!!!
I suppose that profit will go straight into the pension fund,along with the 40% of the council tax.
Of course and dont they deserve it! Feel so proud they represent my island in such a good way !!!
They fine motorists on Ryde Esplanade but the wardens ignore the freeloading ryde taxis who use the pay and display bays opposite the bowling alley as their personal taxi rank and never pay, yesterday the were 4 of them for well over half an hour, given their prices they could easily pay their way.
Yes but that’s because they are related to back office staff.
How did you know if they paid or not? You don’t have to display tickets if you pay by phone/app
Surely anyone with even half a business background in the council would understand that the revenue being taken for parking actually restricts business growth, being the life blood of the economy. The council needs to take a much broader economic impact view on the damage to the island economy they are creating. The 3million plus taken on parking fees, even with conservative estimates, would have a 3x impact to the local traders as people simply won’t come out.
The council needs to focus on long term priorities not short term, no benefit to business profits.
This magnificently unbiassed diatribe misses the most useful bit of information: that despite a huge increase in charges, revenue has gone down since the last comparable period. Does this explain the massive increase in illegal and inconsiderate street parking?
Lovely, no parking tickets are issued for the owner of Beach house in Ryde, because they sponsored Ms.Luciano campaign for Ryde council. They park all over the place.
Would be nice if they contributed it to building a tunnel to mainland !!
That is wonderful news… Imagine what parking will be like when the proposed 2000 homes are built in Ryde alone… !! No where to park ? Then don’t take the car, simples..
Yes it is a scam scam scam now let’s see the robbing gits reduce prices and sort out the bed blockers in the hospital
WTF!! Everything comes down to money and profit these days!!… We pay more than enough for Tax, Insurance, M.O.T and running costs to get going on the roads, but £5.2 Million to stop!! 😮
Yep me too never pay to park in my opinion I pay £360 a year road tax so iv paid to park with that and I refuse to add to the greed of the councilors and allow them to have their over the top pay cheques and bonuses for doing sod all cos the revenue certainly doesn’t get used to pay for public services as it should council is always going on about its £28 million pound debt why don’t the councilors take a pay cut by 90% dept solved
As is pointed out here with monotonous frequency: councillors do not get paid, it’s a voluntary role.
I’ve been wondering, and asking, for months why we are not encouraged to park our cars and spend money in our deteriorating towns. Silly me! Honestly though, it’s so simple, it’s embarrasing….
To those complaining about parking charges and fines for illegal parking, how is it that so many of us have NEVER paid to park and NEVER got a parking ticket?
We go shopping two or three times a week, visit beaches and other attractions, meet people for coffee in town centres etc, use sports centres, go to business meetings and yet we’ve never needed to pay to park or been fined for parking illegally.
Paying to park is what you do when you’re on holiday and don’t know the area.
Where do you think all this “plundered” money goes ? Most of it goes to fund Adult Social Care. If you had free parking everywhere, your Council Tax bill would go up. It has to be paid for one way or another.