SWINDON Council made an extra £350,000 ‘profit’ through parking on top of the previous year, which a government minister has blasted as ‘daylight robbery’.

Just under £2.5m was made last year in comparison with £2.1m in 2012/13, according to the RAC Foundation. The figures are calculated by adding up income from parking charges and penalty notices, then deducting running costs.

The overall figures show that in total more than £660m was made by local authorities across the country.

This amount was criticised by Eric Pickles, the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, who said: “Town halls are committing daylight robbery by ripping off drivers with exorbitant parking charges and unfair parking fines.”

However, Swindon Council Leader, David Renard (Con, Haydon Wick) believes the minister had other authorities in mind with his comments and Swindon offers fair charges and fines.

He said: “It is well known Swindon has a fair approach to parking charges. I think Mr Pickles had other authorities in mind, which make far more than we do, when he made those comments.

"I know a lot of authorities use surveillance cars to monitor parking but we don’t use anything like that in Swindon.

“It is important we have certain parking restrictions and if people don’t abide by them then we have to issue fines.

“We do not make a profit from the money and everything we raise is invested back into the road network.

“One of the possible reasons for the rise is the improvements in the economy. We are seeing more vehicles in car parks than 12 months ago and with the fall in petrol price people are more willing to drive into town.”

Swindon Labour Group Leader, Councillor Jim Grant (Lab, Rodbourne Cheney), said: “I think Eric Pickles is doing what he normally does, which is to bash local authorities for not doing what he thinks they should be doing.

“The reality is that parking enforcement backed up with parking fines where necessary, is important to ensure that we have orderly parking on our roads. What Eric Pickles would like would lead to chaos on our roads.

“The majority of parking enforcement I would say is supported by local residents not objected to; indeed with things like school parking, residents would like more enforcement not less.

“Where residents feel upset with parking fines is where they have nowhere to park, end up parking in an inappropriate place and then get fined for it. But this is a question of parking capacity on our roads, not whether we should enforce existing rules.”