MID Devon District Council’s income from parking rose by more than a fifth in three months as patrols have been increased to encourage drivers to pay for tickets.

In just three months from April, residents paid more than £244,000 for parking, up from £201,000 for the same period last year.

Parking app RingGo has helped bump up revenue, with nearly £98,000 paid using this method, a steep hike compared to the £55,586 in the same three-month period in 2023.

A refreshed parking enforcement regime across the district’s car parks also led to a rise in parking fines issued.

The district council, which is responsible for overseeing car parks – but not on-street parking, which is monitored by Devon County Council – said 715 penalty charge notices were issued in the three months from April.

That’s up roughly five per cent on the same period last year, although Luke Howard, environment and enforcement manager for the council, said this year’s number could fall slightly if some appeals were accepted.

“When I started at the council, I used my significant background in parking to implement a lot of change in how we patrolled car parks to maximise revenue going through the machines, but that does mean we have more penalty charge notices,” Mr Howard said.

“We now patrol all the car parks daily, which wasn’t happening prior to a couple of years ago when I started.”

Cllr Matt Farrell (Liberal Democrat, Tiverton Lowman) asked if the enforcement service paid for itself.

Mr Howard said under the Traffic Management Act 2004, any revenue generated through parking charge notices had to go back into the service and help it hit break-even.

He added that even when drivers refused to pay fines, the success of warrants or bailiff use to recoup the money was almost 100 per cent.

Bradley Gerrard

LDRS