EDINBURGH made a £17.4 million profit from parking charges last year, according to figures obtained by the RAC.
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CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » General Edinburgh
"EDINBURGH made a £17.4 million profit from parking charges last year"
(14 posts)-
Posted 9 years ago #
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"More than once I, and I'm sure many others, have considered driving in to town to make a purchase, considered the cost, and opted to drive to Livvy to spend my money instead."
Thereby spending more money on fuel....
"I wish this was an April fools joke.
Sadly Edinburgh Councils unending war on the motorist isnt funny, while it might 'bring in £17. 4M' the cost to city businesses is incalculable."
Ah, the 'war on the motorist' that sees Edinburgh's streets devoid of cars. I've said it before, it's a war we're losing (if it actually existed). Also, the cost to city businesses? Erm, the fact there's a profit means that people ARE parking in the city centre. I find the lack of logical thought from the EEN commenters is getting more and more pronounced...
Posted 9 years ago # -
There's little logic in 'transport'!
Posted 9 years ago # -
£17.4m/year = almost 10p per resident per day
Posted 9 years ago # -
Private companies make profits all the time.
So why is this news?
IMO, the council should make as much profit as it possibly can out of parking, that's the way any other business would work.
Providing valuable city space to park privately owned machinery is not a public service IMO.
Posted 9 years ago # -
What's the betting the £17.4m doesn't take ground rent into account.
Posted 9 years ago # -
"What's the betting the £17.4m doesn't take ground rent into account."
In what sense? Ground 'annuals' in Scotland, which a landowner can use to get an annual fee from someone using the land. So as far as I can tell the council would own the roads etc that the parking spaces are on, so any ground annual would be due to the council from...
Not really my area, so my assumptions may be totally wrong!
Posted 9 years ago # -
"I would like to know what you actually get for your money when charged to park? The space is already there and there are no moving parts, so what are you paying for."
The use of land, for cars, should be free. Clearly. Everywhere.
Posted 9 years ago # -
I can't find the press release on the RAC website for this "study". It looks like they've released it directly to the media who have unquestioningly regurgitated it across Scotland.
The "profit" is being referred to as "surplus income" in the articles (below the headlines). The RAC figures claim to subtract the income from "parking activities" from the cost of enforcement. There appears to be no breakdown of what comes from actual pay-to-use charges, residents permits etc. and charges and fines for illegal parking.
Posted 9 years ago # -
"so any ground annual would be due to the council from..."
I think that's the point.
Is the 'rental value' of the land/parking space (the fact that the money would 'just' go to the owner - CEC - is beside the point) taken into account when setting parking charges and/or calculating profit?
Posted 9 years ago # -
Donald Shoup may be a familiar name to many of you, but I only came across him recently. He's been studying the economics of car parking for decades. It makes for very interesting reading. Here's an article which covers some of his research:
http://mobile.nytimes.com/2010/08/15/business/economy/15view.html?referer=&_r=0
Posted 9 years ago # -
"I think that's the point."
Indeed, just because the council doesn't charge itself for the use of this ground doesn't mean that the ground is worthless. I'm sure there are many ways the council could make an income from what presumably amounts to several hundred acres of prime roadside real estate.
If this loss of rent/income was taken into the equation then the £17.4m would fall and perhaps even become a loss.
Posted 9 years ago # -
Councils don't necessarily own the land that a public road is built on (known as the solum). A Council is responsible for the upkeep of a public road and can regulate traffic on it (including charging for parking) but the solum often belongs to the owners of the properties fronting the road.
It's an odd situation, as the owners cannot do anything with the land as long as it remains a road. The Council must pay for the upkeep of the road. The only charges that can be levied by a Council for use of a public road are parking charges, a congestion charge or for road occupation permits/temporary TROs. It's not as though a Council could just decide to turn these roads into something else, which would be more profitable.
Obviously, some roads are built on Council land - meaning the Council is also the owner.
Posted 9 years ago # -
Ah, I didn't realise that so I guess the land has no inherent value to them then.
I'll downgrade my suspicion then to merely not including the cost of maintenance of the roads. Not too many potholes to fix in all day parking but they still get resurfaced from time to time.
Posted 9 years ago #
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