Parking Charges hit £1.2 Billion - Sollitt

10.22.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Mon 26th Jun 2006

Commenting ahead of the publication of the Transport Select Committee's Report into parking charges, the Liberal Democrats have released new research which shows that since Labour came to power England's parking charges have increased a massive 82%. In the last year (03/04 to 04/05) alone they went up 6%. England's motorists are now being charged almost £1.2bn a year.

Commenting, Steve Sollitt, Liberal Democrat Campaigner for Southampton Test said:

"The Government clearly sees motorists simply as a cash cow. These increases have punished motorists without achieving any impact on congestion.

"We need greater transparency over what proportion of this income has come from parking fees and how much from fines. We must know how much of this is being driven by private parking contractors."