Data obtained by Kent Online via freedom of information requests shows that Canterbury council brought in the most money from parking charges of local authorities in the county.
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00:00Data gathered by Kent Online has revealed councils across the county have made millions from parking charges.
00:06Figures obtained by Freedom of Information Request show that Canterbury and Medway brought in the most amount of money from parking tickets,
00:13with the former making £10 million from parking. That is nearly 10 times the amount of money that Dartford made.
00:19It comes as Canterbury raised parking charges in some car parks earlier this year.
00:24This area of Canterbury has plenty of independent businesses and some have told me that parking charges have seen their footfall decrease by up to 75%.
00:34They want to see more done about it.
00:36It is awful. It is getting ridiculous to be honest. It's costing everyone so much to come into the city and the park and ride is not sufficient.
00:47The parking charges just keep going up and up and it's definitely having a detrimental effect on all of the businesses in Canterbury
00:53because it's costing people £4, £5, £6, £10 just for a couple of hours stay.
00:58People openly say that they're going to go to Westwick Cross or out of town areas rather than coming into this beautiful historic city.
01:07If you're coming to Canterbury, you're coming for the day. You don't need or want to be paying £30 on top of that just to leave your car somewhere.
01:14I think it creates a barrier for independent businesses. Obviously football is incredibly important to us and tourism as well, obviously.
01:24I think it's incredibly important that we make it as accessible as possible for people to come and shop.
01:30We are really dependent on people coming through the door with containers to refill from the shop.
01:35That's obviously the whole purpose of the shops concept.
01:39So if people can't park in the city centre or have other ways of getting into the city centre from their vehicles,
01:46for example the park and ride schemes, it really is damaging and makes a big impact on the number and the turnover of the business.
01:54Canterbury City Council told us that while it understands that generating the most income from parking makes for an eye-catching headline,
02:01given Canterbury's popularity, it shouldn't come as that much of a surprise.
02:06The council says that charges are based around a range of factors, such as air quality and congestion,
02:12and that income helps pay for services such as rough sleeper support.
02:16The council does admit it charges more for city centre car parks, but say that if you want to drive right up to the heart of the city,
02:23you should expect to pay considerably more for that convenience.
02:26But while the council may be keen on balancing the books, it's clear some businesses feel that they're the ones really paying the price for parking.
02:34Oliver Leeds for KMTV in Canterbury.