HEREFORDSHIRE Council made £1.9 million ‘profit’ in car parking charges in 2013/14- more than £300k than the previous year.

In figures released by the RAC Foundation, Herefordshire Council was 89th out of 353 authorities in the amount it made from parking tickets, permits and penalties.

It collected £1,880,000 in the last tax year compared to 1,563,000 in 2012/13.

Overall in 2013/14 councils in England made £667 million from their day to day, on and off street parking operations. After capital charges the net surplus was £549 million.

By law any surplus must be used for transport projects.

The figures are taken from an RAC Foundation report - based on financial returns sent from local councils to the government

While some of the increase in surplus is down to rising income, there is also evidence many councils are cutting operating costs.

The authority with the largest surplus in 2013-14 was, once again, Westminster with £51 million.