Freedom of information response
Parking Enforcement
I am writing to you under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 to request the following information from Thurrock's Parking Enforcement department. Please may you provide me with:
A breakdown of how the authority has spent a surplus on its parking account for the financial years ending 2023, 2022, 2021, and 2020. A breakdown of expenditure.
Please provide information in the form of a table.
Under the Local Transparency Code 2015 Paragraph 46: "Parking account 46.Local authorities must publish on their website, or place a link on their website to this data if published elsewhere:
a breakdown of income and expenditure on the authority’s parking account
The breakdown of income must include details of revenue collected from on street parking, off-street parking and Penalty Charge Notices, and a breakdown of how the authority has spent a surplus on its parking account."
Title (publishing.service.gov.uk)
I am able to find the parking annual reports which detail income but this does not include expenditure. There is currently no breakdown on how the surplus has been spent, the only comment in the reports is:
"The surplus income from civil parking enforcement is restricted to transport-related issues like the operation of public passenger transport services, highway or traffic improvement projects, and
certain types of environmental improvement along with the maintenance of parking restrictions.
As part of daily patrols, officers report defective lines and signs. These are repaired, replaced, or repainted from surplus income."
- Thurrock Council - Annual parking report 2023
This does not constitute a breakdown of spend and is too ambiguous to be accountable.
The below table shows data on the parking surplus or deficit in parking for the last four years:
Financial Year |
(Surplus) / Deficit in Parking |
2019/20 |
(553,587) |
2020/21 |
131,042 |
2021/22 |
(244,009) |
2022/23 |
(75,993) |
In terms of publishing how any surplus is used, this information has not been published previously, however we are intending to include this in due course.
In issuing our response the council have applied S22 of the Freedom of Information Act. This means that the council does hold this information and it is intended for publication at a future date. You are advised to refer to the council’s website where this information will be published.