COUNCILS in the area have had contrasting fortunes when it comes to parking income, new figures have revealed.

Slough Borough Council is ranked among the bottom 4% of authorities in England for the surplus or deficit made on parking charges, recording a loss of £273,000 in the 2014/15 financial year. That figure that has gradually increased from losses of £157,000 in 2010/11.

The list, published by the RAC Foundation, ranked councils in England on the surplus and Slough sat in 340th place out of 353.

Overall, just 56 authorities made a loss on the money they receive.

Slough Borough Council were unable to provide a comment by the time The Observer went to press.

The Royal Borough on the other hand experienced contrasting fortunes as its surplus was a whopping £3.053m, ranking it 55th on the list.

That figure had risen from £2.207m in 2010/11, and its total parking income – including both on-street and off-street parking – was at £6.7m in 2014/15 – ranking it the 30th highest in the country excluding London authorities.

The Royal Borough manages parking in 49 car parks and on more than 100km of highway. The majority of the council’s income from parking is generated through 26 fee-paying car parks.

Councillor Colin Rayner, Royal Borough cabinet member for highways and transport, said: “Parking is one of the very tricky problems.

“When I first came into my role in 2007 we had no parking enforcement on the public highways at all.

“We are a reasonable council on parking. Residents get free parking in the evenings with an advantage card for example, and all of the income helps to reduce people’s council tax.”

Elsewhere in Berkshire, Bracknell Forest was another one of the 56 local authorities to be making a loss.

The borough ranked 328th out of the 353 English councils for the surplus made on parking charges after recording a loss of £134,000 in 2014/15. It put its figures down to regeneration in the town which had closed some of the car parks to public use.

Despite the surplus dropping for South Bucks District Council over the past five years, it is still in the black after taking in £538,000 in 2014/15 – a drop from £587,000 in 2010/11 – placing it 193rd in the country.

Buckinghamshire County Council faired the worst of all four authorities, ranking in 345th position in the list, and its surplus had jumped drastically over the past couple of years.

BCC recorded surplus losses of £110,000 in 2010/11, and that figure increased to £692,000 in 2012/13, before dropping back to £347,000 in 2014/15.

All local authorities are required to submit their parking finances to the Department of Communities and Local Government each year.

In total, councils in England collected more than £1.4bn from parking tickets, permits and penalties in 2014/15 and most managed to increase their surpluses in 2014/15.