INCOME from council parking charges in York has soared by a staggering 80 per cent in only six years, new figures show.

Motorists handed over £6.74 million to City of York Council in parking fees and in fines for parking offences last year, compared with only £3.74 million in 1998.

But the percentage rise was even greater for East Riding of Yorkshire Council, which saw the biggest increase in the whole of Yorkshire - 98 per cent.

Revenue in the district increased from £1.17 million to £2.33 million.

Ryedale District Council enjoyed a 56 per cent rise, Scarborough 42 per cent, Harrogate 36 per cent and Selby 11 per cent.

Across the country, revenue from parking mushroomed by 71 per cent over the six years to break through the £1 billion barrier.

A Liberal Democrat MP who dug out the figures described the increases as "outrageous", warning that punishing motorists had no impact on congestion.

Transport spokesman Tom Brake demanded an investigation to establish how much of the money came from parking charges and what proportion from fines.

The Liberal Democrat leader of City of York Council, Steve Galloway, pictured, said most of the steep increase in parking charges could be traced back to the years when Labour was in control of the council, and the LibDem national spokesman was clearly making general comments about parking issues and not the unique situation in York.

He claimed that levying relatively high charges in some car parks could be justified, if they encouraged people to use low emission vehicles or other forms of transport such as Park & Ride. "In York, day time parking charges have been effective in controlling the access of vehicles into the City centre," he said. "Local congestion levels are broadly similar to those that prevailed in 1999."

He added that parking revenue was ploughed back into providing better transport, and was the only direct way that York benefited from its large numbers of visitors; this was one of the reasons why the city had the tenth lowest council tax level out of 352 local authorities.

A spokesman for East Riding of Yorkshire Council said that the authority's high percentage rise came from a very low starting point.

"We still only charge £2 per day in our principal towns, Goole, Beverley and Bridlington," he said. "We charge only 50 pence an hour for short-stay parking, and we have very low charges compared to many other local authorities.

He added that there were no charges in either Pocklington or Stamford Bridge.

Updated: 10:02 Saturday, June 18, 2005