Car park income in Torridge during 2024/25 is expected to smash £2 million, writes Alison Stephenson.

It’s the first time it has been that high in many years, with drivers not appearing to be put off by the increase in charges.

A four per cent rise in tariffs in April brought in an extra £37,000 to council coffers in just one month.

Car parking manager for Torridge District Council Steve Macey told its internal overview and scrutiny committee that car park stays had increased by 20,000 to 770,000 over the last two years.

Most people make electronic payments, which account for nearly 50 per cent of the revenue, while only 21 per cent of people were paying with cash. Penalty charge notices brought in around £70,000.

With the cost for a firm to collect money from car park machines now around £40,000, the council wants to stop taking cash in the next two to three years. But for now, it won’t be trialling cashless payments in any of its car parks.

New parking machines are set to be installed throughout Torridge next month, to be run on solar power from next year, and there is a new system which allows customers to pay using apps.

And a minimum of 24 electric vehicle charging points will be up and running in Torridge district car parks by the end of the year.

Mr Macey said some councils in Devon are talking about introducing discounts for local people using car parks, but Torridge preferred to waive charges in the evenings to save people money.

He said the number of penalty charge notices was among the lowest in Devon and the council had been proactive in preventing them getting to the bailiff stage.

Members asked for a breakdown of costs so they could get a clearer picture of how much was spent maintaining and running car parks.