Milton Keynes raked in over £10m in parking charges last year

The sum, including both on and off-street parking, ranked second-highest in the UK outside London for surplus parking charges.

Figures have been released ahead of expected increases to parking charges which will take effect from next month.

RAC’s Steve Gooding said: “These large leaps in profit will astonish many motorists.

“Local authority parking has become big business. The turnover and profit that many councils are seeing would be the envy of many high street retailers.”

The total income from parking in England 2017-18 exceeded £1.6 billion; 5 per cent higher than in 2016-17.