Since the high-profile legal case where residents in Barnet took their council to court over parking fees – and won – OnTheWight has been raising questions with the Isle of Wight council as to what the impact of this legal precedent might be on the Isle of Wight.
At the time of the Barnet case, about a year ago, the response from the council was ‘the ruling wouldn’t impact on us as it related to parking permits in residential parking areas’.
A year ago
In the light of Ryde Business Association floating the potential of legal action over the proposed changes in car parking charges, OnTheWight wanted to seek a more specific answer, asking, “Does the IWC believe that income raised from parking charges can be used in other budget areas outside running, maintaining and operating parking?”
It only took the council five days(!) to provide their answer, which we’ve put in full below.
Current response
The summary: The council claims (broadly) that the ‘You can’t spend money raised through car parking fees on anything else but running the car parking scheme’-argument only applies to on-street parking. They say the money made from off-street parking has no restrictions on what they can spend it on.
The subtleties of it are given in full below, but it’s worth bearing in mind that legal opinions are just that – opinions. It’s only when they’re argued and ruled on in a court of law are they definite.
IWC response in full
Parking income from off-street parking can be used in other budget areas. However, parking income from on-street parking is restricted to the cost of enforcing parking, contributing to off-street parking provision and, if the provision of further off-street parking is unnecessary or undesirable, contributing to the following activities:
- the costs of public passenger transport services
- highway improvement projects
- environmental improvements
The majority of the council’s parking income comes from off-street parking.
Image: new_and_used_tires under a CC BY 2.0 license
