Are motorists in Swindon being taken for a ride?

That’s the suggestion by insurance and finance comparison site Confused.com - it's made a map showing that in many council areas income from car parking, adjusted for inflation, is growing faster than the figure spent on roads maintenance.

That’s certainly happening in Swindon.

According to the map, since 2013-14, the revenue to Euclid Street from parking fees and charges had risen 17 per cent from £2.472m to £3.169m.

In the same time the money the council, spent on the roads went up by just 0.9 per cent from £6.202m to £6.854m.

The council is still spending more than double on highways than it receives in parking income - and the actual monetary increase in spending over the last four years is £652,000, not much less than the actual increase in parking income of £697,000.

Swindon driver Alex Sarah, 30 said: “Of course, I’d like the roads to be better - who wouldn’t but I don’t know that this is so terrible.

“If they’re spending more on roads than they get in parking, then you could say people who don’t drive are paying for the roads that people like me use.”

One man who know’s Swindon’s roads intimately is driving instructor Darren Richardson.

He said: “It’s not too bad around Swindon, there’s some roads where the markings have all worn away, but I think it would be better if councils all over spent money when the holes in the roads were smaller, and didn’t grow into things that coast thousands of pounds to fix.The Greenbridge Roundabout, and the new junction 16 on the motorway are much better though.”

A borough council spokesman said: “The amount of money received by Parking Services has increased in recent years due to the implementation of bus lane enforcement cameras. But the enforcement of parking and bus lanes is not seen as a money-making exercise. All parking services revenue is ploughed back into transport-related projects in Swindon.Not all of this money will be spent on road improvements, some is spent on public passenger transport services.”