PARKING enforcement in Bexley is making the council more than £1m profit a year.

The news will reinforce the opinions of thousands of borough drivers who believe the object of the service is not to keep traffic running freely but to make money for the council.

But Bexley claims: “There is no surplus from parking activities as all of the excess income was legitimately used for the purposes of implementing the London Mayor’s transport strategy.”

Figures released to News Shopper under the Freedom of Information Act show in the financial year of 2007/08, Bexley’s income from penalty charge notices was £2,434,496.

In 2006/07 it was £2,124,016.

The cost to Bexley of running the service is only around £1m a year.

Bexley puts back the profit into transport schemes and to pay for other on-street parking such as designated bays and meters.

In 2007/08 it spent £746,000 on schemes such as the Sidcup traffic review, surface water drainage work, road campaigns, school travel plans and highway maintenance. That left £688,500 which was spent on on-street parking.

Statutory guidance to councils says they should forecast their revenue from parking enforcement in advance but “raising revenue should not be the objective of civil parking enforcement, nor may an authority set targets for revenue or the number of penalty notice charges issued”.

In July last year, a new two-tier system of fines was introduced London-wide, for “more serious” and “less serious” parking offences.

The more serious offences include pavement parking, parking on yellow or zigzag lines or at bus stops.

They attract a higher charge than less serious ones such as parking outside a bay or overstaying on a meter.

Serious offences committed in Bexleyheath town centre attract a fine of £120, while less serious ones are £80.

Anywhere else in Bexley, and in council pay-and-display car parks, fines are £100 and £60.

In 2007/08 Bexley issued 64,566 notices, compared with 57,607 in 2006/07.

Last year before the rules changed, 15,405 were issued.

But after the change — from July last year to the end of March this year — there were 38,830 more serious notices served and 10,331 less serious ones.

The most common offence was parking on yellow lines, with more than 15,000 tickets.

The next most common was footway parking, followed by parking in residents’ parking bays and expired parking payments.

On request, Bexley Council also produced its on-street parking control account.

This account shows an additional £487,000 income, from other on-street fees, taking on-street parking income to £2.672m in 2007/08.

It also details an extra £900,000 spending on staff, marking out parking bays, lighting for parking signs and the cost of collecting parking meter cash.