ST HELENS Council lost a total of £69,000 from the maintenance of local-authority-owned car parks over the past year, data has revealed.

Released earlier this month, data from the Department of Levelling Up, Housing, and Communities has revealed the expenditures for highways and transport services for each local authority between 2022 and 2023.

Included in this data is the money expended and earned from on-street and off-street car parks owned by local authorities.

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In relation to on-street car parking, the data shows that St Helens Council spent a total of £514k on their running expenses, including employee wages.

From sales, fees, and car parking charges, the council earned £211k from these sites, so made a total loss of £303k from on-street parking sites across the borough.

In relation to off-street parking sites, such as the town's larger car parks, the data shows that the council earned a profit of £234k over the past year.

This is calculated from a £627k expenditure on running costs and wages, but an income of £861k from sales, fees, and charges.

Therefore, in total, the council made a loss of £69k on the local-authority-run car parking sites from 2022-23.

St Helens Council isn't the only local authority to make a loss on their car parks, with the data showing that Knowsley Council lost £403k and Halton Council made a loss of £83k between 2022 and 2023.

However, neighbouring councils such as Wigan, Warrington, and Liverpool made a profit of £366k, £544k, and £3.2m from their respective car parks.

A St Helens Borough Council spokesperson said: "The loss on car parking for 2022/23 was due to car parking numbers not yet returning to pre-pandemic levels.

"Key factors in this decline include people working from home as the new normal and the impact of the economic downturn."