Cornwall Council has defended having one of the biggest incomes from car parking charges in the country, saying that without the fees it would have to increase council tax.

New figures show that the council made £9.7 million on car parking charges in 2017/18 – the fourth highest in the country for authorities outside London.

However, while some councils saw their parking income rise last year Cornwall Council’s remained the same.

Cornwall Council came fourth in the league table behind Brighton and Hove (£23.4m), Milton Keynes (£11.3m) and Birmingham (£11.2m).

In a statement Cornwall Council said: “Parking is an important service provided by the council for businesses, residents and visitors to Cornwall, with the 24,000 spaces in our car parks used over six million times during the past 12 months.

"As one of the largest local authority parking services in the country, we generated a surplus of £9.7m this year, which goes towards the £45m we spent on maintaining Cornwall’s 7,300km road network.

“Cornwall’s roads are some of the best in the country with the council rated as amongst the top 25 per cent in the country for keeping our main roads in good repair. Without the income from car parking charges, the council would need to consider increasing council tax to generate the same amount of funding, in order to ensure that our roads remain in good repair.”

The council is currently in the process of making changes to car parking which are hoped will help town centres.

Several of the council’s key car parks are set to take part in a pilot for pay on exit charging – where motorists pay before they leave rather than having to pay in advance.

As well as giving visitors more flexibility when visiting towns in Cornwall the system will also free up civil enforcement officers who will be able to patrol streets rather than having to check vehicles in car parks for tickets.

Cornwall Council is also introducing a “blue badge” scheme for carers which will allow carers to park in more places and enable them to spend time on looking after people rather than having to search for a parking space.

The RAC Foundation said that local authorities made a total of £1.6 billion from car parking charges in 2017/18 – up 5% from the year before.

Information for the RAC Foundation report was provided by www.click4.co.uk