Where’s the Money? Where’s the Report?

Shepway District Council’s on street parking has only ever made a surplus twice since 2008/09. It’s off street parking since 2013/14 has made SDC £1,373,000. Yes, one million, three hundred and seventy three thousand pounds.

On Street Parking = the road. Off Street Parking = car parks driveways, garages etc.

Recently we brought you a blog about the Kent Councils Parking Surpluses and informed you that Shepway had made a surplus year on year from 2011/12, with regards to to its On Street and Off Street Parking.

We informed you that SDC must publish a report regarding how it has spent its surplus money from its on street parking. Cllr Monk has informed our public face that SDC’s on street parking does not make a surplus from its on street parking, nor has it ever done so, hence there is no need for a report. Cllr Monk’s statement is a misrepresentation of the facts.

  

Cllr Monk has stated

“This account (on street parking ) contains details of income and expenditure relating to on – street charges and fines and off – street fines.  You will see that the council does not make a surplus from these activities.  It also follows that as no surplus is made the council cannot set out what it spends the money on.

 The council does derive an income from its off – street charges.  There is no requirement to publish how it spends this income and its use is not restricted.  I can tell you that the income is returned to the general fund and consequently is used to fund the various services and activities of the council.“

So we spoke again to the DCLG and to the RAC Foundation who both publish the data we used in our earlier post.

Both organisations state catergorically that Shepway made a surplus on its on-street account in 2008-9 and 2013-14.

Now we know who we’d rather believe, but we’ll leave you to make up your own mind on that.

The surplus in 2013 -14 may have only been £5000, but a surplus it was and as such, a report setting out how this money was spent and on what, had to be produced. But guess what, no report has ever been produced. So what happened to the £5000? How was it spent and on what Cllr Monk?

Now it is strange that SDC do not normally make a surplus from its on street parking, as you can see for 14/15 and 15/16 it made substantial losses of £152,000. That’s not great economics as it ultimately costs Shepway taxpayers money. In stark contrast to this SDC made large profits from its off street parking between 2013/14 and 2015/16. That profit was £1,373,000 in 3 years and no report for off street parking needs to be produced.

Parking is a commercial operation run by NSL  (an offshore company based in Jersey) (see point 7) for an on behalf of the Council. We are not suggesting that Car Owners should pay more for on street parking in Shepway. Our point is that a surplus has been made and we’d like to know where and on what the surpluses from on street parking has been spent. So come on Cllr Monk, pray do tell or are your powers on the wane after your recent shexit defeat?