Motorists hit with £633million bill as councils push up price of parking in town centres by 14 per cent

Town halls have pushed up the price of parking in town centres and shopping malls by 14 per cent in just two years, they show.

In some areas the amount of money taken from drivers for using car parks has more than trebled over the same period as local authorities have put the squeeze on over parking.

The rapid increase in parking charges has come as ministers have urged local councils to do more to raise money from collecting fees for everything from swimming pool tickets to pest control visits.

Last month local government minister John Healey told a conference of town hall chiefs that they should develop new 'funding tools' by 'using charging to the full potential'.

Town halls have pushed up the price of parking in town centres and shopping malls by 14 per cent in just two years

Fees and charges demanded by local councils arenow costing an average family more than £1,000 a year on top of their council taxes - which have more than doubled over the past ten years.

The increases in parking charges brought accusations from Tories that councils are using drivers as a cash cow at a time when many are already struggling to keep up with the cost of living.

The figures released by the Department of Communities and Local Government show that the amount raised by town halls from charges for off-street parking was just over £554 million in the financial year that ended in 2005.

That rose to £599 million in 2006 and £633 million in 2007, they disclosed.

Among those authorities that managed big increases in their profits was Bournemouth, with receipts up 70 per cent to just over £10 million; Kennet, where a 453 per cent rise pushed takings to over £1 million; and Reigate and Banstead, which showed a 480 per cent increase with receipts of just under £1.6 million.

Tameside increased its car park takings by 3,267 per cent to £1.75 million.

Shadow Local Government Secretary Eric Pickles said: 'Whitehall is pressing councils to use parking charges as a cash cow to raid the pockets of public.

'You would have thought the excessive rises over the past decade in council tax would be enough.

'However not content with squandering much of the taxpayers' money, Labour ministers are calling on councils to use to squeeze more out of the public, who are already struggling with the spiralling cost of living.'

Town halls have cut back the scale of council tax increases over the past four years in the face of deep resentment among residents and voters.

A capping system imposed by ministers has also threatened those who fail to restrict council tax rises to five per cent, itself a figure around double the prevailing rates of inflation of recent years.

According to the Government's favoured measure, the Consumer Price Index, prices have been rising at between two and three per cent a year until the recent spike in inflation.

Many authorities have now begun to look for other ways to raise money.

A report by the Audit Commission, a Whitehall spending watchdog, said earlier this year that town hall fees and charges have doubled since 1997 and now amount to almost £11 billion a year in all.

Councils can apply charges to a range of services including car parks, parking meters and permits; fees at libraries, swimming pools, leisure centres, and council-run theatres; locally-subsidised bus and rail fares; school meals and buses; extra rubbish collections, pest control or fees at cemeteries  and crematoria.

One local authority has used planning laws meant to extract money from large developers to charge a £1,000 fee to anyone who builds an extension to their home. The example set by Purbeck in Dorset - which says it needs the money to pay for its transport policies - is now being examined by other councils.

The Local Government Association, the town hall umbrella body, said: 'Councils put all money raised through parking restrictions back into local transport, street lighting and road maintenance, and cannot use parking as a cash generator.

'The number of vehicles on British roads has increased by almost a quarter over the past decade, which means the effective use of parking restrictions to improve traffic flows and manage congestion is more important than ever.'