BURNHAM-on-Sea's Pier Street car park is the most profitable car park in Sedgemoor, new figures have revealed.
Figures obtained in a Freedom of Information (FOI) request by The Weekly News show Sedgemoor District Council (SDC) has raked in £8867,297 in gross income from parking charges over the past year.
Burnham-on-Sea car parks dominated the top ten with Bridgwater, Highbridge and Cheddar also having entries on the list.
The figures also showed the council made £557,772 in net income from the parking charges which the council says it spends on providing parking facilities for residents, businesses and visitors across the district.
A council spokesman said: "The cost of parking tickets covers a whole range of expenditure that may not be immediately obvious.
"These include rates SDC has to pay on property it owns, patrolling and cash collection from ticket machines - contracted to Somerset County Council, CCTV, cleaning, looking after the shrubbery, repairs and maintenance to the tarmac, white-lining, maintenance/replacement of ticket machines, upgrade software costs where there is a change in tariff, insurance and electricity costs for the lighting.
The top ten earning car parks in Sedgemoor in 2017/18 are:
Burnham-On-Sea Pier Street - £279,555
Bridgwater Mount Street - £164,548
Cheddar Cliff Street - £92,759
Burnham-On-Sea Oxford Street - £91,823
Burnham-On-Sea Lynton Road - £83,293
Bridgwater Dampiet Street - £72,333
Cheddar Church Street - £70,852
Burnham-On-Sea Berrow Road - £41,786
Bridgwater Barclay Street - £36,122
Bridgwater Market Street - £35,772
Bridgwater Northgate - £21,243
Highbridge Bank Street - £18,178
Bridgwater Eastover Short Stay - £13,178
Jacob Dear, a former Burnham-on-Sea resident, said he is 'not surprised' at the figures as he thinks parking charges in the town's car park are too expensive.
"I recently left Burnham to go to university in Cheltenham but before I moved I had lived there for most of my life," Jacob said.
"I lived on the outskirts of Burnham so would often drive in and park up in the town centre and I have to say I'm not surprised in the slightest.
"Burnham’s car parks are way to expensive.
"I believe this is because of the summer trade that the town has with the influx on tourist and people visiting the town.
"This is good for the summer periods but absolutely terrible for the winter as it puts such a strain on the locals of the town during the low period.
"I think it would be great if we implemented lower car park prices throughout the winter as this would make parking much easier for the locals of the town."
But a spokesman for Sedgemoor District Council, said the council has set a scale of charges to meet the demand for spaces and Burnham's car parks are cheaper than other's across the county.
"Car parks fall into one of four bands - edge of town centre, town centre, commuter and tourist," the spokesman said.
"Pier Street car park in Burnham and Cliff Street in Cheddar car park fall into the tourist band.
"They have town centre charges for one and two hour stays but a higher rate for four hour and all day charges.
"Most shopping visits to car parks by local residents would probably not last longer than 2 hours. Season tickets are available for regular longer stay customers."
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