'PROFIT' from car parking charges in Stroud district has hit all time high.

In 2015/16 Stroud District Council (SDC) took in a total surplus of £305,000 from charges at its car parks and parking tickets.

That works out as an average of £25,000 every single month for a year.

The data, published by the RAC Foundation, also found that the authority’s surplus has risen by a whopping 42 per cent in just two years.

These figures are calculated by taking income from off street parking charges and penalty notices and then deducting running costs.

This has seen SDC’s ‘profit’ increase from £115,000 in 2013/14 to a record high of £305,000 in 2015/16.

This massive increase comes despite fares at the council’s eight pay and display car parks not having increased since 2010.

SDC insisted that the surplus from its operations was always pumped back into “essential services” in local communities.

A spokeswoman said: “Any surplus is spent in full each year on essential services such as street cleansing, environmental protection and the commons and woodlands.”

The authority also said the increase of £190,000 in two years had come because of changes to the way it manages its car parks in the Five Valleys.

“We have made improvements to the way we manage our car parks and invested in new pay and display ticket machines,” the spokeswoman added.

“These were installed in 2015 and require much less costly maintenance than the old ones which has a knock-on effect on our revenue.”

The council also moved to stress the fact that parking fares in the district haven’t increased in seven years.

Cllr Steve Robinson, chair of the council’s community and licensing committee said: “I am proud to say that Stroud District Council has not increased its car parking charges since 2010.

“We recognise the need to encourage residents to shop locally.”

SDC runs 34 car parks, of which eight have pay and display machines.

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To put these figure into context, of 353 local authorities in the England taking the most profit last year Stroud ranked 250th. This includes district, borough and county councils.

The data comes from the statutory annual returns that councils make to the Department for Communities and Local Government.

In comparison, Gloucester made £790,000, the Cotswolds made a surplus of £1.5m, and Cheltenham raked in £2m.

Gloucestershire County Council recorded a surplus of £2.5 million for its own parking charges.

Across England the surplus produced from council parking operations has reached a record high of just over three quarters of a billion pounds.

In the 2015-16 financial year local authorities generated a combined ‘profit’ of £756 million from their on- and off-street parking activities.

This is a nine per cent leap on the 2014-15 figure of £693 million, and 34 per cent higher than in 2011-12.

The Local Government Association, which represents councils in England and Wales, said local authorities must "strike a balance" when setting charges in a bid to ensure there were parking spaces available and traffic was not held up.